Broken boundaries
by Jazzerman
Summary: COMPLETE Cross of G1 and Cybertron. One of Wheeljack's old inventions has sent 4 Autobots into the Cybertron verse. Unfortunately so were 7 Decepticons... and things were just calming down from the black hole incident.
1. Never trust Wheeljack's creations

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 1

It was a peaceful day on Cybertron... or as peaceful as days are there. It was actually more of just a lull in the fighting. With both sides on in what may eventually feel like permanent peace, Cybertron is now recovering from the battle with the Swarm. The Decepticons are still quick tempered and rowdy but they aren't as likely to shoot at Autobots anymore. There are however some small anarchic gangs of Decepticons lead by some of the more insane ones that cause trouble from time to time. But still with control of Cybertron most Autobots are now just on security detail. Not that many have much to complain about it, peace is what we've been fighting for now.

Jazz sighed as he approached his old friend. They had been pulling guard duty at the solar collector of a large energon generator. Optimus had placed Jazz in charge of this section of the planet and he was doing his best to keep things in order. "Hey Hound, has that new guy arrived yet? He was supposed to relieve you some time ago."

"Arrived? He's been here for hours and hasn't done anything but sit around and talk to himself." Hound said, pointing over to the Autobot in question.

"What? Hold on I'll go get him..." Jazz grumbled. He had heard that this one was trouble. "Hey why aren't you taking Hound's place?"

This Transformer was mostly black with green lining over his legs, arms, and torso. He had two wings poking out of his back and upward much like the deceased Decepticon Seekers, Star scream, Thunder cracker, and Sky warp. Which gave away his alternate mode of a Cybertronian stealth jet. He had a green face plate (akin to Optimus Prime or Gold bug in appearance if not in color), two green eyes, and an entirely black head. To Jazz he looked more like Decepticon than an Autobot despite that he wore no emblem to be seen. Still he was classed as one in the duty roster.

"Hey Steel Burst, it's your turn." Jazz barked, startling the new 'bot.

"Sorry Jazz... I'm still very disoriented since the Swarm arrived." He said, getting to his feet.

"What are you talking about?" Jazz asked, genuinely interested in what Steel Burst was talking about.

"It's... nothing." Steel Burst sighed, "Let's just leave it at since the Swarm left, I haven't been the same. That thing was scary."

"That it was." Jazz said, nodding. "But I need you to take Hound's place, he's been at his post for three hours more than usual."

"Sorry about that... I guess I was just lost in thought." Steel Burst said as he stood up and walked over to relieve Hound of his duty.

Jazz shook his head and gave a questioning look after the black and green transformer. 'Strange guy...'

---

Meanwhile in another reality...

"Hey Bud are they ready for the peace talks yet?" Lori asked, both her and the brothers were waiting outside for the planet leaders to arrive.

"Yeah, Scourge just arrived and they're just sitting down." Bud said, readying his video camera.

Lori smiled. She was glad to see Scourge finally coming around to the side of peace and was sitting down with Optimus, Evac, Override, Metroplex, and Kernel Franklin. The Decepticons, or what was left of them were not here, where ever they were Lori hoped they weren't causing trouble.

"Alright," Optimus Prime called from the inside, effectively quieting the large conference room. "Let the first intergalactic peace talks begin!"

---

Back across realities...

"Say Hound, before you go, where all the old powerful Decepticons taken out before all this peace swept in?"

Hound tapped his chin looking over at Jazz. "Well from what I remember Sound wave was lost in space and never returned, Scourge and the Stunticons just kinda disappeared, same goes for the Terrorcons, Sixshot left the battle a long time ago and never appeared again... I'm sure a few others are still out there."

"Yeah, but at least the worst of the worst are gone. Shockwave, Sun storm, Star scream, the Predacons, Bludgeon, Scorponok, Jhiaxus, Unicron..." Jazz said, recounting on all the battles and friends that were lost taking them out.

"Remember what it took to be rid of them." Steel Burst said. "And also remember the wars are over, Megatron may have been revived by Cobra but for now at least things are over between both sides. Personally I'm glad it's quiet but what's an infiltrator like me good for now that everything's peace oriented?"

Jazz laughed. "You could always infiltrate the energon reserves and snag us some energon goodies."

Hound chuckled, the thought of some energon sounded good to him right then even though he'd never condone the act of theft.

"Nah... I think I'll just stockpile some energon, head to the planet of Junk, offer the Junkion leader Wreck-Gar three fourths of it in exchange to hang around, and bum around there for a while. I feel tried from all this."

Jazz nodded, mental fatigue wasn't uncommon to peace loving Autobots. Despite knowing little about Steelburst other than the data track in which Hound described him, Steelburst reminded him a little of Huffer, lazy and quick to complain but at the same time honest and tough. Add to that a tab flighty, which would serve him well if he decided to go to Junk. The Junkions were good natured but had a xenophobic streak since people like to steal things from Junk. Still Wreck-Gar might take in a tired Autobot without any form of payment, it was hard to tell with the Junkion leader.

"So what's so special about this solar collector? I mean it looks like any other I've seen more or less." Steelburst asked, looking up at the massive machine meant for collecting the solar energy of the stars they passed as Cybertron drifted in the vastness of space. Both sides were working on ways to cement Cybertron back in a stable orbit. Preferably before the distance between Earth and Cybertron grew too vast for the space bridge to function reliably.

"I don't know much other than that I was told that it's one of Wheel jack's old designs." Jazz said.

"Should we start running now?" Steel Burst asked jokingly. Wheel jack was known for creating machines that often had a tendency to... explode.

"Nah, before he died Brainstorm helped Perceptor in fine tuning it so it wouldn't go haywire like so many of Wheel jack's machines." Jazz replied, much to both Steel Burst's and Hound's relief.

"So... it's not running right now is it?" Steelburst asked, still looking jittery about near one of Wheeljack's creations regardless of it being 'perfected' by two other Autobot scientists.

"Oh it's running, and at full power too." Jazz said with a smirk on his face.

Steel Burst gulped. "Well, they turned it on and it didn't blow up. That's a good sign I guess..."

Hound laughed, until he looked up. "Hey what's that?

Both Jazz and Steel Burst looked up at the direction coming the Autobot Scout was looking at.

"It looks like three bots, one of them's bigger than the others..." Hound said. "They're two far away to make out who they are for certain. But if I had to guess one of them is a Gestalt."

As the incoming transformers came closer, the older Jazz clicked on his communicator. "Jazz to anyone, we've got serious trouble coming towards the solar collector at the new energon plant."

"What is it Hound?" Steel Burst asked, unable to see what was the danger.

"Old friends." Hound said reading his Hologram gun.

---

Once more across the realities...

"I second your proposal Optimus Prime, build that space bridge!" Kernel Franklin said, a second before the crowd around the table of planet leaders burst into a cheering roar.

"Very well!" Optimus Prime said, standing to address both the planet leaders and the crowd. "Let's usher in a new age of peace and-"

Optimus Prime stopped his speech as the room grew dark and what appeared to be a space bridge appeared hovering over head. The crowd which had been cheering only minutes before was now hushed and mumbling the same questions to the robots next to them. What was going on? Was this some last attack by Megatron from beyond? Was this a result of the black hole?

"What is this?" Scourge bellowed, standing from his seat. "What now?"

Before any of the transformers could react a black and green transformer fell from the erratic space bridge and crashed into the table, shattering it to bits. The leaders sprang back, unsure of what to make of this they all silently decided it was best to err on the side of caution.

The bot weakly got to its feet, shaking its head. It was damaged in multiple places; part of its chest plate was cracked, sparkling energon could be seen leaking around a large piece of shrapnel in its abdomen, and part of it's wing was bent downwards. The blank faceplate obviously denied any from seeing how much in pain it was in.

Optimus stepped forward, feeling like he should be the one to ask a few questions while he signaled for Red Alert to. "I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Who are you and where did you come-"

"Here they come!" The 'bot shouted, throwing his already damaged self off the table and pulled out his weapon, recognized by some of the Autobots as a Decelerator laser, a weapon that inhibits an enemy robot's flow of cerebral impulses, effective against most opponents and very non-lethal.

Five more robots dropped through the 'space bridge', none of them looked very friendly and all sported the Decepticon symbol. One of them transformed into a large green and gold double headed dragon and began to charge after the wounded bot.

"I feel like a second helping of Autobot!" He called out gnashing both of his jaws as he charged.

"Only if you can find me Sinner Twin!" The apparent Autobot shouted as six pipes stretched up out of his back and began to emit thick smoke that quickly hid the green and black bot from view in seconds.

Scourge had wasted no time and was now attempting to grapple with another of the Decepticons, unfortunately he had chosen the strongest one there.

"You're a very powerful opponent." Scourge said, attempting with all his might to push his opponent back yet not getting anywhere.

"When you lead the Terrorcons you have to be the strongest, and I, Hun-grrr am indeed the strongest of all Decepticons!" Hun-grr bellowed as he suddenly pulled Scourge in for a powerful knee to the chest.

The other Autobots (plus Overdrive and Metroplex) were busy getting the civilians to safety, in addition to the humans. One of which was adamant to stay and support Scourge, namely Lori.

"Lori this place isn't safe, we've got to get you out of here!" Red Alert said, trying to reason with the stubborn human.

"But you might need our help!" Lori argued, although even to her it seemed like little she could do to help.

Lori sighed and went with the Minicons to find a place to hide. However the humans and Minicons were cut off by one of these new Decepticons.

"Filthy biologics! I'll tear you all to pieces!" It said, transforming into an amphibious creature similar to something between a shark and a frog.

"Not if I have anything to say about it!" Hot Shot said, activating his cyber key and giving the Decepticon a hefty blast back towards the others.

"Come on let's get out of here before that thing gets back!" Coby said, getting no argument from either his brother, Lori, or the Minicons.

"Alright ya wee buggers, I'll wipe the floor with the lot of ya!" Metroplex bellowed, swinging his axe around in a threatening manner before leaping into the battle.

"Grrr... Sinner Twin! Ripper Snapper! Forget the humans and that battered Autobot!" Hun-Grrr cried. "Terrorcons! Merge and become Abominus!"

The remaining transformers were stunned having never seen a combination like this. All five Terrorcons combined into a transformer that dwarfed even Metroplex. This 'Abominus' let out a loud bellow, punched Metroplex sending the massive giant transformer flying across the room and began to shoot wildly at anything that moved.

"This thing's gone insane!" Overdrive cried, taking shelter from around a hallway exit corner. "It's like it just wants to destroy everything!"

"That's kinda the idea..." The green and black bot said, looking like he was about to fall over any second.

"How'd you get over here!?" Override yelped, turning to face the damaged bot.

"No time." He said. "Abominus will destroy everything around here... He's nearly invincible... but he's slow and dumber than a drone on quarter power. If you can out think him or out run him you can beat him."

Override smirked at the word 'outrun'. "I'll show you the meaning of outrun!"

The leader of Speed Planet blasted out of her hiding spot in her vehicle mode, not seeing the newcomer fall to his knees before going into Stasis lock.

Abominus had utterly ignored the down and out Scourge and Metroplex and had been focusing on battling the Autobots who where shooting at him from cover and attacking the building itself. Override circled the Gestalt, calling on her Cyber key power and firing with all her might. Abominus took hit after hit, only growing madder and madder with each missed kick and swipe at the female planet leader. Override was impressed at this monster's resistance to damage, but she alone couldn't take this guy down. He was being pelted by the others and was hardly feeling anything.

"Hey Abominus heads up!"

The Terrorcon Gestalt looked up only to get two feet bashed in his face, sending him toppling over to the ground. Override and the others held their fire at the sight of two new comers to the fight. A black and white Autobot that appeared to have a car vehicle mode and a Green Autobot with a jeep grill on his chest. Both of these newcomers punched their fists together and grinned, secretly they were pleased just to catch this Decepticon off guard like that.

Their joy was short lived as two more figures dropped down from the space bridge and shot both Autobots in the back. Both were Decepticons, one looked vaguely familiar to the native Autobots, looking very much like Sound wave from Planet X and the other... well he was entirely blue, had red eyes, and a long mustache and thin beard.

"Abominus! Cease your attack and withdraw from combat! We have plans for this place." The blue Decepticon bellowed in an authoritive voice. Abominus promptly rose and smashed down a wall, all three of Decepticons then did something the Autobots had never seen before. These 'cons could apparently fly without need of a jet mode as they simply flew out of the building. Leaving the building in ruins, the citizens panicked, Autobots injured, and the space bridge shattered and gone.

"Hey, you still functioning?" Override asked Scourge, who grumbled and stood.

"Grr... I was just surprised," The Jungle Planet leader grumbled, holding his side. "Who were those 'Terrorcons'?"

Override shrugged. "Never heard of them. Then again I've never seen either of these guys before."

"Oi, that Abominus fellow's got quite a mean left hook." Metroplex said getting up.

"Is everyone alright?" Optimus Prime asked, with the Cybertron defense team right behind him. "By the Allspark did those five Decepticons really do all this?"

"No, they combined into this monster of a robot called Abominus and smashed the place up until these two here knocked him down." Override said pointing to the unconscious bots on the ground. "Two more Decepticons showed up, shot them, ordered Abominus to fall back and they FLEW out that window."

Optimus looked at the two Autobots. "Red Alert, get these two to the med bay and get them repaired. I'd like to know what we're up against."

Red Alert nodded. "Sure thing Optimus, Scattershot gimme a hand."

Both of them grabbed the two unknown Autobots by the shoulders and lifted them to their feet, lugging them out of the ruined conference room.

"There was one more Optimus, the one that landed on the table." Override pointed to the prone bot lying motionless on the ground not far from them.

Hot shot ran over to check on him. "Wow this guy's in pretty bad shape... Optimus this guy''s in Stasis lock, he needs immediate care!"

"Get him to the med bay fast before his spark goes out." Optimus ordered, not wanting to see a single Transformer deactivated this day. "Hot Shot, you think you can get him there gently?"

"I'll do my best Optimus! Transform!" Hot Shot cried, converting to armored transport mode.

Override and Optimus both lifted the emblemless Transformer onto Hotshot and watched as he rolled off towards the med bay. Leaving the planet leaders to shake their heads at the damage.

"Well that did not end as I had hoped." Optimus said glumly.

"Who could've seen an attack like THAT coming?" Metroplex said. "But I'd be more worried about those Decepticons, especially that Abominus. He knocked me almost as hard as Galvatron did."

"We'll go after them later." Optimus said. "We'll focus on the health of these three possible allies and hopefully getting information on what these new enemies want."

To be continued...

AN: Well to answer some questions, the Cybterton-verse is set in the final episode and the G1 verse is set after the arrival of the Swarm in the G2 comics with a dash of the marvel comics and the animated show. Many of the Autobots and Decepticons are gone, and that's why I didn't use some of the more famous ones.


	2. Repairs Repairs Repairs

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 2

"Wow, these guys are really banged up, what happened in there guys?" Coby asked, having been invited to the med lab to help Red Alert piece these new guys back together.

"A group of new Decepticons showed up, combined into a giant that was bigger than Metroplex, tore the conference room to bits, then made off." Red Alert said as he worked on the green and black Cybertronian. "I'm surprised that these guys are even still alive. These two took direct hits from Decepticon laser fire and the third looks like he was trampled by an entire mob and he's still kicking."

Bud and Lori were standing with the Minicons, not sure what to make of these new comers.

"Hey Jolt, have you ever seen these guys before?" Bud asked.

"No, what would make you think that we know them Bud?" The Minicon asked innocently, not understanding why he was being singled out.

"I dunno." The human child said, idly brushing off the question.

"I think Bud's just thinking that you might have seen them when you were with Vector Prime." Lori said, hoping she hadn't said anything she shouldn't have.

"No, I never saw them before." Jolt turned and listened to some of Safe Guard's Minicon talk. "Safe Guard doesn't know them either."

Lori sighed and shook her head, looks like they weren't going to learn anything until they woke these bots up.

"Hey Red Alert! There's something struck in this one's... radio I think." Coby said, trying to pull something out from the black and white robot's torso.

The something looked like a black metal cassette tape once Coby managed to pull it free. "A cassette tape?"

"Haven't these bots updated to CDs and MP3's yet?" Bud quipped, having not seen a cassette tape in any other place than his father's music collection.

"Yeah, this is pretty outdated- HEY!" Optimus and the Cybertron defense team readied their weapons at Coby's cry of alarm. The cassette had leapt from his hands and transformed into a Autobot about double the size of the Minicons.

"Wow, That was uncomfortable. Thanks kid." The bot said. "Where am I?"

"You're on Cybertron friend. Who might you be?" Optimus asked politely.

"I'm Rewind, wait, is that you Optimus? You have an overhaul on your frame since I last saw you?" Rewind questioned as he squinted up at the much taller Autobot.

"I'm sorry Rewind but I've never heard of you." Optimus said. "Perhaps you have mistaken my appearance for someone else."

"No I'll show you." Rewind walked over to the computer and transformed, inserting himself in cassette form and began running pictures and data until a picture of Optimus Prime appeared, or at least that's what the name under the image said.

"Optimus Prime Leader of the Autobots. Alternate mode: Tractor Trailer. Optimus Prime is the largest, strongest and wisest of all Autobots. Feels his role is the protection of all life, including Earth-life. Fights unceasingly to defeat the Decepticons."

"It sure sounds like you Optimus." Coby said.

"Indeed, and the image does resemble me... Somewhat." Optimus said. "Rewind can you tell us who these other Transformers are?"

"Of course Optimus." Rewind said from within the computer.

The image changed to the black and white Autobot "Jazz, Autobot Special Ops. Agent. Alternate mode: Car. A danger-loving daredevil with a bottomless bag of tricks. Loves Earth culture, particularly rock n' roll. Always looking to learn more. His knowledge of Earth makes him the indispensable right-hand man to Optimus Prime. Takes most dangerous missions. Very cool, very stylish, very competent. Equipped with photon rifle, flamethrower, full-spectrum beacon, 180db stereo speakers. Creates dazzling, disorienting sound and light shows."

"What's this about his stranger being your second in command Optimus? I didn't know you had a second in command Autobot." Bud chirped up to the Autobot leader.

"I don't recall ever naming one Bud." Optimus said. "This is very strange but please continue Rewind."

The image changed to the green bot next to 'Jazz' "Hound, Autobot Scout, Alternate mode: Jeep. Hound loves the natural wonders of Earth, prefers it to Cybertron. Brave, fearless, loyal. Uses turret gun as radar scope, infrared radiation collector. Tracks machines as well as humans. Hologram gun projects 3-dimensional grid laser-light topographical maps."

"Interesting, so what about this other bot?" Hot Shot asked, stepping towards the computer.

The image changed to the Green and black bot. "Profile classified."

"Classified?" Lori blinked. "Why is his profile classified?"

"That information is classified by request of Optimus Prime. Sorry." Rewind said, his voice ringing through the computer's speakers.

The Autobots looked at each other. If Optimus had never seen either of these Autobots before how could he have classified this one's file? Things were looking pretty confusing for a while before Optimus decided to humor the bot.

"Then as leader of the Autobots I want this file unclassified." Optimus Prime ordered.

Rewind ejected from the computer and transformed, landing with a thud in front of Prime. "Sorry 'Prime' but your appearance doesn't match the one in my files. Then again I haven't seen you since the Swarm showed up, they could have altered your form... I'll need to verify your identity. If you have the Matrix then you have to be Prime."

Jolt looked at Safeguard. "The Swarm? You think he's talking about the Scrap Metals?"

Six-Speed and Reverb blinked and beeped at each other before both shrugged.

Optimus was intrigued by this strange little bot but rather than argue he decided to humor him and opened his chest, revealing the oval-shaped container that was undoubtedly the Matrix.

"Yes sir commander." Rewind saluted and returned to the computer in cassette mode. "Steel Burst. Autobot Infiltration agent. Alternate mode: Cybertronian stealth jet. Previous Datatrack deleted, playing supplementary file from the Datatracks of Hound Autobot Scout."

Optimus placed the Matrix back into his chest and closed it. He couldn't help but wonder why this one was classified, much less it claimed to be himself who classified it.

The image of Steel Burst appeared again, and small window with Hound sitting in a chair opened. "From what I heard Steel Burst was once a respected spy and a master of infiltration. Capable of sneaking into the hardest Decepticon base to gather information or steal something to bring back to base. He was efficient, unapproachable, and as sour as they came. But after his 'encounter' (as he calls it and he won't go into it further) with the Swarm his personality did a near full 180 degree turn. He's gone from efficient to lazy, unapproachable to flighty, and sour to fun loving. He's become more sociable but at the same time really hard to figure out. Whatever happened to him is something that he keeps to himself. I just hope he levels off soon because he's becoming very strange. End Datatrack."

The image disappeared as Rewind ejected once more from the computer. "Looks like whatever file that was there was deleted from my archive. Sorry Optimus."

"It's no big deal Rewind you tried your best and you did give us information on these guys." Coby said, looking up from working on Jazz. "How's Steel Burst coming Red Alert?"

Red Alert looked up from his repair work, he had kept working while listening to Rewind's Datatracks. "He's stable, but repairs will have to be extensive. Whatever happened he was nearly damaged beyond all repair."

"Sinner Twin." Jazz mumbled as he sat up. "Ugh, man it feels like Trypticon stepped of me."

"Hey you should lay back down, I'm not done with repairs!" Coby shouted in surprise as he had to leap off of the robot to avoid being dragged into the air as Jazz sat up.

"Huh? A human? Where in Primus's name?" Jazz said, looking from Coby, to the rest of the present crowd of Transformers and humans and stood up despite not fully repaired.

"Calm down friend, maybe we can get some straight answers from you. Like where that space bridge came from?" Red Alert said, still working on Steel Burst's battered form.

Jazz shook his head and walked over to Steel Burst. "Poor guy, hard to believe that just Sinner Twin and Hun-Grrr did this."

"Who?" Red Alert asked.

"You've never heard of the Terrorcons?" Jazz gave the group a slightly confused look then looked around the room. "Rewind? You still here?"

"Right here Jazz!" Rewind said, a little irritated that Jazz had missed seeing him when he was standing just a few yards from his foot. He was small but he wasn't THAT small.

"Ah, I bet you've been explaining things to these guys." Jazz accurately guessed nodding his head. "Can you show them the Terrorcons?"

"Sure, one moment..." Rewind grumbled, he was just going to stay in the computer after this until everyone was done asking questions. This was getting ridiculous. Once inside the computer he projected the image of all five Terrorcons. Hun-Grrr, Ripper Snapper, Cut Throat, Blot, and Sinner Twin.

Jazz cleared his throat, not that he had to being mechanical, he just remembered how much it helped Earth teachers gain attention from children. After all children were present. "The Terrorcons are a Decepticon Gestalt team, capable of combining into Abominus. They represent savagery and brute force and little else. Their leader is Hun-Grrr, an excessive despot whose desires for fuel an destruction can't be sated, Blot is a depressive Transformer who is constantly leaking some kind of lubricant where ever he goes, Cut Throat's so ruthless and merciless he doesn't stop fighting until his enemy is a pile of scrap, Ripper Snapper hates everything that isn't a Decepticon but has a particular hatred for Organic life, and lastly all Sinner Twin wants is to fight."

Jazz gave them a second to take that all in before he continued. "A good fighting force can send them packing, the problem is when they combine. Abominus has incredible strength, firepower, and endurance and can shrug off most artillery with no ill effect. His only weaknesses are his low intelligence and speed."

"We know, he took on the entire team and trashed the conference room before he took off with two other Decepticons." Scattershot said. "I'm surprised that big lug could fly despite his size."

"Ugh... Jazz what happened?" Hound asked, sitting up. "And where the Pit are we?"

"That's what I was going to ask. None of you look familiar." Jazz said, looking back to the native Autobots.

"Well that's Optimus Prime, Hot Shot, Scatter Shot, Red Alert," Coby said, pointing each Transformer out as he named them. "The Minicons are Jolt, Reverb, Safe Guard, and Six Speed. I'm Coby, that's Lori, and that's my younger brother Bud."

The computer clicked as new pictures appeared. "Red Alert, Autobot Security Director. Scattershot, Technobot Leader."

"Rewind, what do you make of this?" Jazz asked the computer, since the cassette wasn't there to face.

"Well, I don't know how Wheel Jack's solar worked but combined with his creation's natural insatiability and the damage the Decepticons did it could have launched us into an alternate dimension." Rewind said, sounding a little too calm for Hound's taste.

"What are you glitching about Rewind?" Hound snorted. "You think that something both Brain Storm and Perceptor both worked on transported us to another universe?"

"The information I'm copying from this computer seems to support that idea." Rewind said. "After all we've seen weirder things."

"Okay then... let's think this through." Hound said. "Soundwave, Scourge and the Terrorcons attacked the Solar Collector we wound up fighting in a wrecked room and getting shot in the back."

"Well, if what you say is true then what are those Decepticons up to?" Hot Shot asked, crossing his arms. The young Autobot was starting to get what the humans call a 'head ache'.

"Ugh... another Scourge to deal with." Lori groaned. "I guess your Scourge is a lot different than ours..."

"No, our Scourge is an arrogant Transformer with contempt for all non-Decepticons." Rewind said, posting a picture of the very evil looking Scourge.

"Burr... Whoa, now that's creepy." Bud said, getting a similar reaction from the Minicons (Minus Safe Guard).

"Soundwave was our Megatron's old lieutenant. He's extremely dangerous and not to be underestimated." Jazz said as Soundwave's picture appeared. "They say his audio receptors are so good he can even monitor the electrical brain impulses and read minds. But that's just a rumor."

"Never underestimate an enemy." Optimus said. "But what would you do now? The space bridge that brought you here has collapsed and we don't know how to get you back."

"Odds are our people are working on a way to get us back... hopefully." Hound said. "I guess once we get back on our feet we go after those Decepticons."

Hound turned his head and looked at the broken bot next to him. "Some sooner than others."

"Don't worry, Red Alert got him stabilized and he's getting him repaired as we've been talking." Coby said. "Now you mind if I finish my repairs on you Jazz before you go off to fight again?"

Jazz chuckled as he walked back to lie down on the table. "No prob kid, just do a good job."

"I have to go check on the others and see their reports on the damage. You all can stay here and finish things here." Optimus walked out of medical lab and left the humans, Minicons, and the Cybertron defense team to finish the repair work.

---

Optimus's presence went almost unnoticed as busy Transformers attempted to rebuild the damaged sections of the conference building. That was until he spoke only a few steps behind Jetfire who was doing an excellent job of supervisor.

"So how are things here Jetfire?" Optimus asked.

After Jetfire felt his fuel pump slide back down to its rightful position he turned to face Optimus. "Very good commander. Metroplex and some of his boys are pitching in and the building should be back up in a matter of hours."

"Good." Optimus said as he watched the large Gigantion Transformers at work. The speed of which they repaired the damage caused by Abominus was almost staggering. "How is Colonel Franklin and Scourge?"

"The Colonel's doing just fine, Scourge refused medical treatment claiming it was nothing, and Metroplex got a good knock on the head but he says he's get checked out when the work is done." Jetfire shook his head. "But in my opinion we got off lucky. Those loony 'Terrorcons' could've done a lot worse."

Optimus agreed. "Indeed, but we have some help in tracking them down. I just hope they recover quickly."

---

Steel Burst's optics flickered on. With one quick movement he sat up and looked around. "Where am I?"

"Cybertron Medical bay in another reality Steel Burst." Jazz said, who had been finished a little while ago. "I'm glad to see you full of energy."

"Yeah, but I guess this cuts into my plans of heading off to the planet of Junk for a long vacation." Steel Burst grumbled. "I was looking forward to just sitting around, watching television, and learning things from the Junkions."

"Junkions?" Red Alert asked.

"TV?" Bud asked with a grin, hearing a welcome topic.

"The Junkions are a unique race of Transformers on a planet comprised completely of the accumulated refuse of eons of Cybertronian society." Steel Burst explained. "They're addicted to Earth's Television programs and it makes up the bulk of their culture."

"Sounds like Bud's kinda place." Lori joked.

Steel Burst continued. "The Junkions are a bit hard to understand since most of what they say is taken from TV shows and they're a bit xenophobic because of isolation and people trying to steal things from their planet. They themselves are made out of junk and they're really hard to fight since they can just repair themselves with whatever's nearby."

"I take that back, Coby would like to see these guys." Lori laughed.

---

Ransack grumbled as he watched all the Autobots working. Things were certainly dullsville around here since Galvatron kicked the bucket. With Crumple zone and maybe Thunder Blast and Thunder Cracker they would never be able to fight the Autobots like they used to. The diminutive Velocitron Transformer sighed and looked up to see three shadows flying over the city. With a smirk he decided to follow them.

To be continued...

A/N: I apologize if this seems stretched, but I get kinda spacey writing for so many characters in one scene. .

D. Mischief, Emily, & Prime Revolver: Tanks. Hope you enjoy.

SpartanCommander: Ah that's right, the Con empire was never really explained further after Jhiaxus was offed. Been a long time since I read the comics. But I have an idea that might be just as good as the G2 Con Empire. And I agree that the Cybertron cons weren't as tactically gifted. I know this might tick some fans off by they were more like a gang of Waspinators (or to a worse extend SkyBytes) than actual Cons (excluding Megs/Galvy and Scourge). But on Scourge, I was disappointed that he'd be scared of someone he could just STOMP.

raveen92: Hard to say, Either they pass out or there's an event that destroys the entire universe. (Back to future ref)

roanman112 and RM's Sis: Thanks. I Made this because Cybertron seemed the most deserving out of the new 3 (Armada, Energon, and Cybertron). One thing that really bugged me was the introduction of Coby's battle suit-bot-thing and then they didn't even mention it afterwards. You'll see more of it later on.


	3. Happenings

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 3

As the hours ticked by the children and native Autobots told of their adventures to acquire the Cyber Planet Keys and close a black hole that was threatening to devour Earth, Jungle Planet, Velocitron, and Gigantion.

"So Primus actually transformed out of Cybertron when you got three of these keys?" Hound said, now his turn for Coby to work on him. "Primus never did that in our dimension."

"Really?" Coby asked looking over at Hound while he worked on the last of his repairs on the Autobot Scout.

"No, not to my knowledge at least." Rewind said, still inside the computer.

"Tell us more about your Cybertron. I'd like to hear what you've had to deal with." Scattershot said, eager to hear about the other dimension.

The newcomer Autobots began to trade stories with the Cybertron defense team and the children. Those native to this Cybertron heard tales of various battles, the habits of various Autobots, races like the Quintessions and their Sharkticon legions, Unicron's attempts to destroy Cybertron, and finally the attack of the Swarm. A large, amorphous, black mass of particulate sized, corrosive organisms that traveled from planet to planet, seeking out cybernetic life forms to feed on.

"Huh, I thought this 'Swarm' would be like the Scrap Metals we encountered when we returned to Cybertron." Scattershot said, who was now sitting at the computer looking through some of the files that Rewind was giving in exchange for copying data from their database.

"Nah, but I'd rather not face either of 'em..." Jazz said, leaning against a way with a smile. He looked over at Steelburst who was now repaired and sitting in the corner staring into space.

"Is he going to be okay?" Red Alert asked the Jazz, pointing towards Steelburst. "He just suddenly got up and sat down over there."

"Steelburst? Eh he's fine. I haven't known him long but he's cool." Jazz said. "He might be weird but he took on all of those Terrorcons you saw back there. He did pretty well until Hun-Grr and Sinnertwin got their teeth into him tried to have him for a snack if you get my drift."

"That explains the damage, but how did those Decepticons fly off without need of any propulsion?" Scattershot asked, still searching through the Cybertron database for possible explanations.

"The Decepticons never revealed that whole little trick." Hound said. "Even now with the truce between both sides we have secrets."

"So the Decepticons are at peace in your world? Hard to imagine it." Lori said, "Is your Galvatron still alive?"

"Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons in our world was reformatted into Galvatron by Unicron, then rebuilt back into Megatron by a human terrorist organization called Cobra." Rewind said, still inside the computer. "There have been many Decepticon leaders including Shockwave, Scorponok, Bludgeon, Ratbat, Liege Max-"

Rewind was silenced when Steelburst suddenly stood, walked over to the computer and sat down in front of it. The strange Autobot that had been sitting in the corner like a doll was now sitting at the computer plugging a few wires from his arm into the computer.

"What are you doing Steelburst?" Coby asked, just finishing Hound's repairs.

"Downloading." Steelburst said as the computer screen suddenly clicked on. A television theme song suddenly played:

_"In the not-too-distant future- Next Sunday A.D.- There was a guy named Joel, Not too different from you or me. He worked at Gizmonic Institute, Just another face in a red jumpsuit. He did a good job cleaning up the place, But his bosses didn't like him So they shot him into space."_

---

"Who are you guys? Ransack shouted up at the larger and much scarier robots. He would have seemed brave if not for his shaking knees.

"Yeah!" Crumplezone said, not really adding anything to what Ransack said.

"Should I simply destroy them Scourge?" Soundwave droned, pointing his weapon at two now very frightened pair of Velocitrons.

"No, I have a better idea Soundwave." Scourge said, grinning smugly. "These two could make effective shields in battle."

Scourge walked up to the two Velocitron Decepticons and placed a clawed hand on their shoulders, stopping their pleading and shaking but not their fear. "How would you like to help me overthrow all of Cybertron?"

"Overthrow an entire planet full of Autobots?" Crumplezone blinked. "You can do that?"

"If Galvatron couldn't beat them even with all the power of the Omega lock and the Planet keys what makes you think you can do any better?" Ransack squeaked, starting to shake from looking into Scourge's piercing red eyes.

"Yes I know I can. But first we require information." Scourge said, digging his claws into both of their shoulders. "Tell me everything you know about this 'Omega Lock'."

---

Bud and the Minicons were sitting on the console, laughing with Steelburst as three silhouettes made fun of some old Earth movies.

"I guess Steelburst is harmless, since it looks like he's just as much a movie addict as Bud." Lori said, hard to believe a giant alien robot was as bad as Bud... but it looked like it was so.

"If you don't mind I'm going to go for a drive. Your company's been nice but I need to get out and use my wheels." Hound said, getting off the repair table.

"Me too, besides we need to find out what those Deceptacreeps are lookin' for." Jazz said, transforming into his car mode. "Anyone wanna race?"

"Race?" Hot Shot's eyes lit up, much to the dismay of Scattershot and Red Alert.

Jazz reved his engine and took off, not waiting for Hot Shot who transformed and raced off after the otherworldly Autobot and leaving Hound with a with confused look on his face.

"Hot Shot's really into racing, they should be fine." Scattershot said, walking over to Hound. "I'll show you around, will Steelburst be okay here with the children?"

"Yeah, he's pretty much absorbed into that video screen now. It's hard to pull him away from one." Hound said. "He should be fine with the kids."

Both Hound and Scattershot walked out of the med lab, leaving the Minicons, kids, Rewind, and Red Alert to pick up all the tools. Well, actually just Red Alert and Coby. Steelburst refused to move from the chair even at the prodding of Bud and the Minicons, Rewind was too small to reach the table (or so he claimed), and the kids and Minicons weren't strong enough to lift the Transformer sized tools.

---

Thundercracker sat down as he took a breather from helping the Autobots rebuild the conference room. After this he would be heading off to Earth to help rebuild the damage done to the human cities by the black hole. Thundercracker didn't really care about the humans or their cities, he was just glad to be on the winning side for once despite Mudflap's strict work policies.

"Hey Ransack, haven't seen you in a while." The jet said in his Texan accent, still wearing the crude stick-on Autobot symbol over his Decepticon symbol. "Hurry up I'm on my break, and if Mudflap sees me slacking I'll really get it."

Ransack shook his head. "Man you've really sunk low TC. Why not help me find Thunderblast so we can wreck some havoc like in the old days?"

"I don't know, I kinda like being on the winning team." Thundercracker said. "That and I don't have any clue where that flighty femme went to."

Ransack groaned, this wasn't going to be as easy as he thought he would be. "Well I got something to show you. You got a sec?"

Thundercracker shrugged. "Sure thing, as long as it's a second."

Ransack led the 'reformed' Decepticon into an alley where Crumplezone had been waiting. One quick punch knocked the smaller Thundercracker into temporary deactivation.

"Well that was easy." Crumplezone said, happy to have SOMETHING go right for once. "So he didn't wanna join up with us again?"

"Nah, he said he'd rather be on the goody two shoes side." Ransack said. "If we bring him to Scourge the big blue psycho will 'talk' some sense into him. And then again if he complains it'll keep Scourge's eyes off us for a while."

"You mean him whining like a Minicon will take the heat off us?" Crumplezone was impressed by Ransack's deceitful plan. "That's pretty smart Ransack."

"Thanks CZ. Now you carry him back to Scourge and tell him I'll find Thunderblast." Ransack dreaded trying to talk her into coming along since how hard it was dealing with her when Galvatron was still around. "I'll see you back at the meeting place, and keep your eye on that Soundwave guy, he seems even more dangerous and shady than the one we met in space."

Crumplezone nodded and loaded Thundercracker on his back and transforming, ending up with the jet lying on his back. Ransack watched as Crumplezone rolled off with Thundercracker on his hood, sighing heavily as he went off to search for Thunderblast.

---

"I heard you guys got your rear axels handed to you today." A purple chassis-ed Decepticon said as she walked into the medical bay. "Looks like you all survived, oh what a shame."

"Bolt that mouth shut Decepta-witch." Lori spat up at the robot that was well over ten times her size.

Steelburst looked away from the video screen and at the femme then down at the kids. "Who's that?"

"Thunderblast, she's a prissy, overbearing, Decepticon who's tried to waste the Autobots since Starscream let her out." Lori continued to bash the femme Decepticon.

Steelburst looked at Thunderblast. From what he remembered from past talks with Rewind is that the Decepticons he knew had no female members and the Autobots had an almost nonexistent number of female Autobots.

"You know it's not polite to stare." Thunderblast snapped, crossing her arms. She ignored Lori's comments, she didn't have to listen to what a useless little mouse said.

"I wasn't staring." Steelburst said, looking back at his television program and chuckling to himself at the antics on the screen.

Rewind shut down the program and locked Steelburst out of the system. "Time to get back to reality friend."

"Reality sucks." Steelburst grumbled as he retracted the cords and wires out of the computer and back into his fore arm.

"Do you have any reason for being here Thunderblast?" Red Alert said, and not in a very friendly tone.

"Hmm... I'm just bored. Things are too quiet around here for me." Thunderblast whined as she wringed her hands together. "I heard there were some new guys causing trouble for you earlier today."

"Yes there were, but they took off and we're looking for them right now." Red Alert didn't want to give away too much information because Thunderblast might try to hook up with them and cause more trouble. Red Alert didn't need that to worry about.

"Hmm. Well, take care boys. I'm gonna go see if some nice bot wants to by me an energon drink." Thunderblast mused as she walked out of the medical lab.

Lori growled. "That smug bi-"

"Whoa Lori let's not say anything we might regret." Coby said, managing to get the hot headed young woman to stop what she was about to say. Especially with Bud's big mouth.

Bud sighed. "I wanted to see more of the show."

"Well at least she's gone..." Jolt said. "Besides there are worse people that could have walked in."

At that moment Optimus returned to the medical bay. "I see some of our guests have decided to take a walk."

"Optimus sir!" Red Alert was surprised to see him back so soon. "Is something the matter?"

"Not at the moment," Optimus said. "Metroplex and his team are repairing the conference building and I just saw Thunderblast stomp out of here. She seemed miffed about something, did you give her a hard time Lori?"

"Maybe..." Lori said, trying t sound innocent.

Optimus sighed what was he going to do with the kids now? These new Decepticons were a major menace, it would be wise to send the kids back to Earth. However he would break the news to them a little later. He had other things on his mind now.

"Rewind what do you think these Decepticons are here for?" Optimus asked the Autobot cassette.

"Difficult to say Optimus." Rewind said, "In the past the Decepticons were mostly concerned with amassing energy to continue their forces running. As was all of Cybertron, after the millions of years the Planet Cybertron was nearly drained of all energon, forcing both sides to seek outside sources of energon. The Decepticons later tried to drain the earth of all its resources to produce energon, but were eventually fought off by the Autobots. Now Cybertron is slowly recovering. Current reason for these Decepticon hostility is unknown."

"You mean the Decepticons tried to steal all the resources off the Earth to steal our resources?" Lori said, somehow getting the idea that these Decepticons were far more wicked than the kind she had known.

"Correct." Rewind said.

"I don't think they're here for Energon." Steelburst said. "Why go to another dimension just for energon?"

Optimus Prime nodded. "That doesn't seem like a valid reason for interdimensional travel."

"Say Optimus, are you going to postpone the expedition to set up new Space bridges?" Coby asked.

"I'm afraid so until we know what we're up against." Optimus said. "We are currently securing the Atlantis so no one will be able to get inside without authorization. Corneal Franklin has returned to Earth for the time being however Override, Metroplex, and Scourge have remained to help fight this new threat."

"I'm glad. Abominus was scary." Jolt said, Sixspeed and Reverb both agreeing with him.

"I have everyone searching for where they are might be hiding. If they're on Cybertron we'll find them." Optimus hoped his words were reassuring, most of his team had little idea what they were getting into. Including Optimus himself.

---

"So the Omega lock will enable us to achieve our goal?" Soundwave asked in his monotone voice.

"If what that diminutive scrapling said was true." Scourge said as he tapped his claws on the wall of their hideout. "If it isn't what we want will not be possible, and we will have come here for nothing. Still we will have the pleasure of recreating the Decepticons with me in command."

"... Of course Scourge." Soundwave hid his contempt for Scourge with his emotionless voice. He was growing more and more irritated Scourge spouting these arrogant ideas. Still if he was right about this device the Decepticons could ascend to power greater than the Autobots could ever dream of. He would keep silent for now.

A loud cawing could be heard as a bird like transformer flew inside their hideout and circled around Soundwave before transforming and landing in Soundwave's opened chest.

"Buzzsaw reports that the Autobots are now searching for us." Soundwave said, having translated the bird's squawks even before he collected the cassette.

Scourge growled, very displeased with what was happening. "We will wait for that fool and his moronic friend to gather the few Decepticons on this planet, and then we will begin our operations."

To be continued...

AN: For those who don't know, Steelburst was watching Mystery Science Theater 3000. One of my personal favorite shows. It was going to be the theme from Earthworm Jim's animated show but I didn't think it was recognizable enough. If you've never seen MST3K I suggest you check it out on youtube dot com.

D. Mischief: I needed to advance the story. keeping track of 17 characters in one room isn't easy.

Fk306 animelover: Thanks for the review!

Raveen92: Actually that happened in the Transformer's Tataki game. Granted it was Optimus Prime and Rodimus Prime face to face and not 2 Optimus's.

roanman112 and sister: thanks, I tried to make a simple reason for them to travel between worlds and I figured what better than one of Wheeljack's crazy creations?

SpartanCommander: Yes I know Jazz isn't 2nd in command anymore but I was copying data from the old toy profile. Besides Rewind is known for reciting data that has little or no value. As for Shockwave I'm not sure if I'll revive him. But I have an idea for someone else to revive. Someone much more powerful -evil grin-

Alayea: Do'h! Darn this spell checker. I'm sorry but spell checks don't catch everything and I didn't even notice that, I was excited to get that chapter up. and the thing is about the spaces in the names... I just didn't care enough. I'm doing this all for fun but at your request I'll stop. As for Jazz, I guess need to go back and watch my poor quality season 1 episodes I got. my season 1 an 3 aren't too bad but season 2's are in horrible shape. I never got to see the creation of the Stunticons. -cry-


	4. Progress is made

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 4

"That's all I know!" Thundercracker cowered under the shadow of the larger Soundwave. "I don't know nuthin more about the Omega lock or the Matrix!"

Scourge growled in frustration at this worthless transformer. It wasn't hard to imagine how the Autobots defeated these Decepticons if all they had was help like those bumblers Ransack and Crumblezone and this Thundercracker. Scourge almost felt sick knowing that he himself was reformatted from the Decepticon Seeker of the same name.

"Soundwave, that's enough. We still need to locate the final piece of the puzzle."

Soundwave nodded and ejected Buzzsaw. "Buzzsaw, prepare for flight. Operation: assimilation."

Buzzsaw squawked and flew out and up through the ravine of broken metal that had been opened up by Megatron's attack on Primus and remained when the Primus when he returned to planet mode. Buzzsaw was pleased that he could serve in that coward Laserbeak's place, and he was far more capable than that ridged Ratbat. He'd get Soundwave the information he needed.

---

The metal landscape of the outskirts were nearly empty and prime for racing, a sharp contrast to the city which was far too crowded and congested for the two cars. Both were nearly side by side, Hot Shot was slightly faster but Jazz's daredevil stunts were keeping him close to the younger Autobot. Jazz would jump over barricades, transform and flip in mid air to avoid rough terrain and obstacles only to revert to his alternate mode to resume the race. But despite all this he could only break even with Hot Shot.

"You're pretty fast kiddo." Jazz said once he was next to Hot Shot again.

"Thanks, but what you're doing is amazing! Where'd you learn to do that?" Hot Shot exclaimed, having never seen a bot do such reckless moves and pull off all of them without a hitch.

"Ever had to escape from a rampaging Omega Sentinel over thousands of tons of debris?" Jazz said smugly, "Not easy if you flee by conventional methods."

"Hey, hold on a sec." Hot Shot stopped in his tracks and transformed and looked up. "I thought I saw something."

Jazz stopped and transformed to stand next to the younger bot. "Well what'd ya think ya saw?"

"I dunno. I guess it was nothing." Hot Shot said, "Let's continue the race."

Jazz nodded and both resumed their little game.

---

As Optimus was about to leave the medical bay Rewind stopped him by running in front of him.

"I need to talk to you in private Optimus." The small Autobot said. "It's confidential."

"Will it take long?" Optimus asked, "I have other matters to check on."

"Not long at all Optimus." Rewind replied.

Optimus lead the small cassette bot into Red Alert's office and closed the doors with the controls on the panel. "No one should be able to hear us in here."

Rewind spared no time, he wanted to get this information out as quickly a possible. "Optimus, I wasn't able to tell you before about Steelburst. The datatracks are not deleted, I was ordered by your counterpart to only discuss these matters with him or Preceptor but I guess I can share this information with you."

"Why all this secrecy?" Optimus asked, not understanding why Rewind had to report this to him in private. "Is there something wrong with him?"

"Yes, when the Swarm attacked Steelburst was a Headmaster. A transformer binary bonded with his human partner Issac."

"I don't understand, human partner? Binary bonded?"

"Binary bonding is a process that enables an organic humanoid to be altered to a become a component of a transformer. Depending on the desired result the component becomes either transformer's head, weapon, or an engine. In any case the combined party is enhanced to a degree beyond normal their normal parameters."

"Fascinating. Please continue Rewind." Optimus was eager to hear more about this process.

Rewind nodded and continued with his explanation. "When connected with each other, the human or Nebulan, in Steelburst's case the former, and the Transformer essentially share a single mind and can work together seamlessly, but when separated from each other, both retain their individual minds and bodies. This allows for greater cooperation, and with twice the experience, a better understanding of possible combat or other dangerous situations. The binary-bonding process does not damage the body of either party, and both parties are able to carry on with their normal lives, but it does generate a permanent, irreversible bond between their minds."

Optimus crossed his arms. "So Steelburst was one of these transformers bonded with a human?"

"This is just speculation, but Preceptor who also knows about Steelburst's condition believes that the death of Issac while still being bonded to his partner traumatized him deeply." Rewind shook his head, not liking what Preceptor told him when he wanted him to record Steelburst's files so no one could look at them in Teletran-2.

"You mean you don't know what happened for certain?" Optimus sounded disappointed that this archivist didn't know everything about Steelburst.

"No, I was only clued in for what could have caused his condition. Our Optimus is the only one besides Steelburst who knows everything about his condition. When I asked about it he said he 'likes secrets'."

"Keep me informed." Optimus said. "I have to check with Evac and Crosswise, I just hope they've found something by now."

"I understand Optimus." Rewind nodded.

---

"Hey did you hear that?" Bud asked the Minicon next to him, both of which had been eavesdropping on this private conversation from the air duct. A trick they had learned on the Atlantis.

"Yeah, poor Steelburst. No wonder he's so weird." Jolt whispered, not wanting to be found out.

"Yeah it's a shame about Steelburst but I'm interested in that Headmaster process." Bud said, starry eyed with ideas about what he could do if he was like a Headmaster, Powermaster, or something of his own childish creation. "I'd actually be able to combine with one of the Autobots, and Coby wouldn't have to make me a super cool robot suit like he has!"

"Shh! Quiet or Optimus might hear us..." Jolt looked around nervously, seeing only metal walls and what was outside the grating made the Minicon relax a little but if Bud kept raising his voice they'd be found out.

"Let's get back to the others, I can't wait to tell Coby about this." Bud said with a grin. The idea of being a part of a transformer was something the child wanted to try badly.

Once the two had climbed back down the air duct and returned to the medical bay. They had questions they wanted to ask Steelburst.

---

"Hey Thunderblast, man have I got news for you!" Ransack called as he ran towards the femme who was sitting in an energon bar.

"What are you talking about?" Thunderblast snorted into her energon drink. "If this is some kind of joke you'll regret it."

"Nah, so keep quiet. The Decepticons that trashed that conference building are going to steal the Omega lock." Ransack couldn't but grin fiendishly at the femme. "I don't know what for but it's BIG."

Thunderblast thought about what Ransack said before responding. "Do these guys have a big strong leader?"

Ransack didn't know what was wrong with this femme, he shook his head and just forgot the question, it wasn't worth getting angry over. Scourge would mangle him if he didn't get more help for him soon. "Yeah, he's strong, I dunno how strong but he's got a lot of rough bots with him. So you gonna help us or what?"

Thunderblast stretched her arms. "Yeah, I'm bored with all this peace and love junk. Show me the way tiny."

"Tiny!?" Ransack grumbled and turned, he just wanted her to follow him to the ravine. "Hurry up, if he gets mad because we're late it's your head."

Thunderblast followed Ransack as they exited the bar and headed off to meet these new Decepticons.

---

"So Unicron's head was blown clean off and it orbited Cybertron for a few years? That must've been pretty ominous seeing that thing everyday." Scattershot said as they arrived back at the medical bay.

"No kidding. I was glad when it finally drifted off into space." Hound laughed, not wanting to go into detail about how the head had landed on Junkion and how it had tried to reconstruct its body with mind controled Junkions and a bounty hunter named Death's Head.

"What about Megatron? Is still on Cybertron trying to take over?" Scattershot asked.

"No, right now he's working WITH our Optimus to help rebuild Cybertron and to secure it from the second-" Hound stopped talking and looked around. "Hey where's Steelburst?"

Lori gritted her teeth. "I dunno, Bud overheard Optimus talking to Rewind about Steelburst and started asking him all these weird questions about humans combining with Cybertronians."

"Okay, so what happened?" Scattershot wasn't sure what Lori was talking about but urged her to continue.

Coby picked up where Lori left off. "Well Bud was asking all these questions that Steelburst didn't want to answer so he transformed into this flat jet and flew out the door."

"Did he say anything?" Hound asked, surprised the normally mellow bot would freak out like that.

Coby shook his head. "Not a word."

"Hey I'm sorry, I didn't know he'd run away like that." Bud pleaded, "I just asked him what it was like to have a human partner in his head."

Rewind groaned. "Just what we need now. Steelburst to run away..."

Optimus looked down at Bud. "I know you didn't mean any harm Bud but the way you did it was wrong. Steelburst suffered a deep mental injury and you probably reopened the wound."

"Is there anything I can do to make this better Optimus?" Bud asked, genuinely feeling apologetic. "What if I said I was sorry?"

"That would be a start." Hound said. "Secondly don't force him to talk about the Headmaster technology, if you have questions talk to Rewind."

Bud cast his gaze to the ground, he never imagined he'd be able to hurt one of the Autobots in any way. Then again these weren't normal Autobots, and those weren't normal Decepticons they were fighting. It wasn't likely that Lori could pull a Scourge on these guys. They were way too vicious, way too much like Galvatron.

"Optimus, we have a breach in security." Jetfire's image appeared on the main computer screen, interrupting the talk Optimus was giving Bud.

"What now Jetfire?" Optimus inquired, walked towards the screen. "Has Abominus reappeared?"

"Thankfully no. This bird like Decepticon flew in, knocked everyone down with laser fire then disappeared. It wasn't until we saw the computer screen was flicking through datatracks until we discovered that the little bugger was IN the computer copying data."

"Sounds like one of Soundwave's cassettes." Hound snorted, remembering how many times those little bots had infiltrated their bases. "Did you catch or destroy the little monster?"

"No, he flew off and disappeared once he was outside." Jetfire said regretfully. "Sorry Optimus, but it looks like they got whatever they wanted."

---

The Terrorcons grinned as they saw Ransack and Thunderblast arrive. They saw these Decepticons as little more than food if they ran low of fuel in battle but they were under orders not to attack their native allies... for now anyway.

"So where's this big strong leader you said these guys had Ransack?" Thunderblast demanded, covering her olfactory sensor as she passed Blot. Thunderblast felt her fuel at the back of her throat as she passed the nasty Terrorcon. The sight and smell of him was almost too much for the prissy femme Decepticon.

"Scourge over there." Blot pointed out, unintentionally flinging a bit of foul-smelling lubricant from his elbow onto Thunderblast's shoulder.

Thunderblast was about to kick the Terrorcon around their hide out when she heard the sound of a transformation come from behind her. Standing beyond a makeshift door were two blue transformers. Neither of them looked as attractive as Galvatron in her opinion. One looked downright wicked with his beard, sharp claws, wing like protrusions, and burning eyes and the other looked blank with his faceplate and visor like optics.

"Excellent work Soundwave. Now that we know where to gather all the pieces of the puzzle, our little game can begin." Scourge grinned. "Now, gather everyone together, it's time we began."

"As you command Scourge." Soundwave's emotionless voice hid the contempt he wished to show openly like Starscream used to towards Megatron. Scourge was no leader, he was an arrogant fool whose despised everything around him. If he had to Soundwave would destroy Scourge if it meant completing their goals, even if it wasn't fully necessary.

---

Meanwhile across reality, the Autobots and Decepticons of the other universe were attempting to analyze the malfunctioning solar collector. Preceptor was taking readings with his instruments while the Construcicons were attempting to figure how what the problem was.

"The Autobot who designed this thing had a few circuits loose." Bonecrusher grumbled as he fumbled with a broken panel.

Preceptor had to agree that might have been the case. "Wheeljack had a flair for the dramatic in his creations. Some of them actually worked. But that's not what I'm worried about."

"What are you talking about?" Scavenger snorted, still not over his days of fighting the Autobots.

"This collector is giving off bizarre energy waves, I feel I should go over Wheeljack's notes and personal datatracks while he designed this device." Preceptor said, "Because I'm starting to believe that this isn't what it was originally it was designed to be."

To be continued.

AN: To everyone: I admit I am not the most adept TF fan, I never got to read most of the comics so there are many things I don't know. I have an idea for bringing in more characters but you have to trust me. I can't give away the plot, that's bad writing.

raveen92: Unfortunately YT doesn't have anything I haven't already seen.

Tigerprime: Well hard to say who'd win, C Scourge has the advantage in strength and fighting hand to hand but in a fire fight or test of intellect it's G1 Scourge for the win. This is the result from the Seibertron fantasy battle forum.

D. Mischief: Steelburst's origins will be explained soon.

Fk306 animelover: Glad you're enjoying it.

SpartanCommander: Dude, I need something full of power for the Decepticons to try to grab. With Primus asleep I assumed that his power would be sent back into the keys since Optimus and the leaders were arguing what to do with them. As for Liege Maximo, Rewind is known for having faulty information or he could have begun a new sentence. I put him in there for a cameo appearance nothing more. On the other hand he could have been promoted when Jhiaxus was slagged. Who knows?

RM2 and bro: Sorry about your cousin, hope he gets well soon.


	5. Decepticons! Attack!

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 5

"This is suicide, you can't believe I'm gonna risk my neck to do that! I'd rather- ACK!" Thunderblast was cut off by Scourge's large clawed hand clamping down on her neck.

"Be silent and do as I say femme." Scourge snarled as he looked Thunderblast in the eye. "Otherwise I'll let Hun-Grrr show you what he likes to do to Autobots."

Just to further illustrate Scourge's point, Hun-Grrr transformed into his two headed dragon mode and took a bite out of the wall, chewing the metal until it was scrap then swallowed it only to spit out the scraps like shrapnel out of his other head. Thunderblast gulp as she saw that the shrapnel was buried a good three quarters into the opposite wall. The idea of that monster chewing her perfect chassis and spiting it out like powerless energon was a highly revolting idea.

Ransack chuckled, loving the sight of that stuck up femme getting told off by Scourge. Maybe this guy wasn't too bad. Galvatron had never told her off like that, then again he was never as menacing as this guy. Thunderblast liked to whine more than him or Cumplezone, he'd just tell the big lug to keep quiet and they should be fine as long as Thundercracker and Thunderblast keep complaining.

"Terrorcons, you know your mission. Go, and destroy as much as you desire until you get our signal." Scourge ordered before turning to Soundwave. "I'm putting my faith in you Soundwave, do not fail me."

Soundwave nodded but kept silent. He and his cassettes could handle the Autobots, it was just a matter of waiting for the right moment to strike. He was more worried about these bumbling native Decepticons being unable to handle their part of the plan.

---

"Jetfire, I'd like you to keep an optic open for this Autobot." Optimus said, sending a profile picture of Steelburst. "He's not dangerous but he should report to the medical lab. He may not want to cooperate."

"Ain't he the one that started al this by landing on the conference table?" Jetfire said, crossing his arms.

Optimus nodded. "He's not well Jetfire. Tell me, how are the repairs to the conference building?"

"Nearly done sir." Jetfire said. "I estimate it would have taken weeks to repair the damage if not for the bots from Gigantion."

"Good job. If you have time I want you to locate Steelburst and bring him back to the Medical lab."

---

Scourge had been wandering the streets since he had been humiliated by that abomination of a transformer back at the peace talks. He would have given anything for a rematch. Of course the odds of him actually finding that monster again was slim, but he would welcome the challenge. He after all was the leader of Jungle planet, supposed to be the mightiest of all bots. His thoughts were halted when he heard the familiar sounds of battle. Sprinting towards the battle he found Metroplex already fighting the same group of Decepticons that has embarrassed him and eagerly leapt into the fray with his axe. "It appears that I was in the right place in the right time."

Hun-Grrr didn't care to go for a dragon verses dragon duel, he wanted to continue feasting on the siding of the building. Turning one of his heads toward Scourge he let loose a blast of high velocity shrapnel that stuck in Scourge's armor but thankfully did no serious damage. Still it had given Cutthroat enough time to blindside the planet leader with a flurry of laser fire.

Scourge fumed, these creatures were opportunistic and dishonorable. Still that would make it all the sweeter to take these creatures down. "Why you... Cyber key power!"

Scourge's green Jungle planet key came down and powered him up, sending a torrent of fire down on Hun-Grrr and RipperSnapper. Bolt was lucky enough to be out of range, his leaky joints would have lit him up like a torch.

"Looks like you got in a good shot." Metroplex said, stepping up with his axe. "Now it's my turn, take this ya wee monsters!"

Metroplex's axe swung wide and hit Blot who was knocked to the wall. If he had been more intelligent transformer he would have made some sort of witty remark or insulted the large planet leader. But instead he just grunted and got back to his feet.

"Terrorcons! Unite!" Hun-Grrr had personally had enough of this. These transformers had interrupted his meal and now he wanted them turned into scrap he could eat in relative peace. The Terrorcons once more formed the brutal horror that was Abominus. With one loud rage filled bellow he charged both planet leaders.

Scourge redoubled his attack and shot twin balls of fire at Abominus who swatted them way with his hands like they were a pair of small flying insects. Metroplex swung his axe upward to build up momentum and swung down, the Gestalt was knocked to one knee as it connected with Abominus's shoulder. However the force of the blow was the only thing that made the combined horror do down, his purple armored shoulder was only slightly damaged and had a large dent that would take a full thirty minutes of metal work to get out.

---

Meanwhile on the Atlantis the skeleton crew was making routine checks of the engines and other vital systems. The atmosphere was calm for the most part, Optimus had positioned more 'bots to guard the ships and had said nothing else. Although the attack on the conference building was now well known on Cybertron the bots inside busied themselves in their work and had complete confidence in the bots around the ship. Some of them however were irked at the loud music that was coming from a small music player that one of them had brought in with them.

"Hey, will you turn that music down! I can't hear myself process over here!" One of them called out.

The one that had brought the music player in attempted to turn it off but it just got louder, and louder until even the metal hull began to shake. The decibels increased until the civilian Autobots began to short out until they went offline. Only then did the tape player transform and stand over the defenseless Autobots.

"Defenses neutralized. Prepare this ship for take off." Soundwave commanded as he ejected various cassettes by the names of Buzzsaw, Rumble, Beastbox, Slugfest, and Squawktalk.

"Sure thing Soundwave. Ol' Scourge'll have his ship an' maybe we can get some respect 'round 'ere." Rumble said as he and some of the other cassettes transformed and entered the controls, acting as crew who couldn't be seen unless someone looked inside the control panels for cassette tapes.

"Take off and head to the coordinates of the rendezvous point." Soundwave droned as he lifted an Autobot by the neck with one hand. "Buzzsaw, return and follow. Operation: Rendezvous."

---

Steelburst was sitting on a tower railing watching the streets below him. Completely content to simply sit back and watch the machines below him go about their business. It allowed his mind to wander and eventually he started to drift to the images of the television programs he liked to watch. Steelburst would have continued his self induced trance like state if not for Jetfire landing noisily behind him.

"There you are." Jetfire said. "C'mon Optimus wants you to come back to the medical lab."

Jetfire was met with silence and stillness. Steelburst didn't acknowledge his arrival with even a glance as he returned to watching the transformers below.

"Hey are your audio receptors busted?" Jetfire called out, still no reaction. "Optimus told me there'd be days like this."

Jetfire advanced and shook the Autobot by the shoulder. Steelburst did the last thing Jetfire expected, he fell off the ledge and plummeted for a while before transforming into stealth fighter mode and floating silently off. Leaving Jetfire confused at his silent stunt and relieved that he hadn't collided with the ground.

"What's his deal?" Jetfire asked before taking off after the strange bot.

---

"Optimus!" Coby shouted from where he stood on the control console. "I don't know how or why but we're getting multiple disturbances. Decepticon attacks most likely."

"Where are these attacks located?" Optimus asked with authority.

Scattershot tapped on the console to pinpoint these attacks. "On the outskirts of the manufacturing district, the chamber where the Omega lock is at, and the Atlantis which is now taking off from the shipyard."

"Contact Wingsabre and Evac and have them track the ship. Who's closest to the other two areas?"

Scattershot laid out a grid map of the area, marking out the locations of other Autobots near the threatened areas. "Well Metroplex and Scourge are at the manufacturing district fighting something big. I'd bet five hundred units of energon that it's that Abominus again. I'm contracting Hot Shot and Red Alert to head to give them a hand. I'm worried about the ones trying to get into the Omega Lock Chamber. The encryption locks aren't going to hold them out forever and there's a lot of Decepticon signals in those halls.

"Scattershot, contact Crosswise, Leobreaker, and Override. I'm going to need backup." Optimus said as he raced out the door.

---

"Will you hurry up! Those Autobots aren't going to let us break into this place without a fight!" Thundercracker whined, becoming increasingly unnerved as Scourge concentrated on breaking the lock on the chamber.

"Be silent you sniveling petrorabbit." Scourge spat as the last lock was broken and the locks slid and clacked as the door opened. "Now grab the Omega Lock and let's go."

"We don't have time to waste on you Prime. Fracas, let's show them what a Targetmaster team can do."

"Of course Scourge." Scourge's gun shouted as it let loose a barrage of fire power that made the Autobots duck for cover.

"Get the lock." Scourge said, not specifically to any one of his witless warriors as he flipped open his comm. system. "Soundwave, I need some help."

"As you command Scourge. I have your location." Soundwave's monotone voice came over the comm. "I will be there momentarily."

---

Abominus had been playing a game of tug of war for Metroplex's axe. He had many dents and scratches on his frame from Metroplex's blows and a few burn marks from Scourge but otherwise the gestalt was unphased or unaware of his injuries. One of his mammoth hands was clenched onto the Gigantion leader's axe and was trying to wrench it away while using his free hand to wrestle with a very agitated dragon that was trying to bite at his joints.

"Oy... you're a tough beater alright," Metroplex said, earning a loud bellow from the near mindless Gestalt. "But yer not much for conversation... Scourge, give this upstart a warm greetin'."

"Gladly!" Scourge called on his Cyber Key once more and let loose a powerful blast directed straight at Abominus. The blast would do a great deal of damage when it hit. However it never did. Abominus, whether out of boredom or some primitive cunning disassembled into the Terrorcons and the blast missed its intended target and hit Metroplex. The Gigantion leader was thrown into the adjacent wall and collapsed, having gone into stasis lock.

Scourge would never admit it but the thought of fighting all five of these monsters at once was too much for him. If they transformed back into Abominus Scourge could make a 'tactical retreat' and perhaps get a edge on his oversized foe. However that idea was cut off as two twin headed dragons began to circle him, eyeing him like hungry beasts.

Abominus would have been a preferable opponent to these creatures.

---

"This is crazy!" Thundercracker complained as the Autobots gained ground on the Omega Lock Chamber.

"Be silent you worthless fool." Scourge spat. "Everyone into the chamber. Now."

The Decepticons obeyed Sweep leader's command and fled into the chamber and pushed the door shut, activating the automated locks and locking them inside.

"Great now we're trapped." Thunderblast snorted. "This was your great plan? Getting us all slagged?!"

"Fat good this did, they'll just unlock the doors!" Ransack cried. "What now fearless leader?"

"On the contrary..." Scourge smirked and pointed his Targetmaster gun and fired at the hinges, melting them and sealing them in. "Now all we have to do is-"

The roof collapsed in a massive explosion of rubble and debris. The panicked native Decepticons fled over behind Scourge as a large yellow something pierced the ceiling and crashed through the floor. The deeper it went the larger it got as if it was a part of a larger object. As it stopped the native Decepticons saw that this was something familiar... the Atlantis! It had actually been crashed through three levels of the planet just to pick them up. Scourge's second in command, Soundwave opened the air lock doors and stepped out with Buzzsaw on his shoulder.

"Move you fools! Get the Omega Lock into the ship and be quick about it!" Scourge barked, causing everyone but Soundwave and Fracas to rush over to grab the Omega Lock and carry it into the ship.

Scourge snorted, it wasn't a wonder how the Megatron of this world was destroyed if he had help like this. Not one of these Decepticons was a worthwhile soldier, none of them had any apparent skills besides behaving like common gun fodder. In the eyes of the Sweep leader these warriors were completely expendable. He boarded the Atlantis and grinned, the Autobots had just breached the door.

"What in Primus are you doing!?" Optimus Prime shouted at Scourge. "What are you planning to do with the Omega Lock?"

"Just you wait Prime. We have plans, and they involve you as well!" Scourge shouted back, a confident grin decorating his face. "Soundwave, take us off."

Before Optimus or the other Autobots could react properly the airlock shut and the ship slid upward, leaving a hole that lead straight up to the surface.

"What did he mean by that?" Optimus wondered out loud before issuing an order for all flying Autobots to attempt to follow the ship.

To be continued.

AN: sorry if this one took longer. I had to help with a huge family yard sale and my birthday happened. Got the entire series of Beast Machines, old G2 and G1 comics, the entire dark elf trilogy, various older comics (Micronauts, Moon knight, toxic avenger) and the ultimate TF guide. YAY. Been busy. I'd like to know something: who's your favorite TF(s)? This question is not restricted to G1 and Cybertron. It can be from Beast machines, Beast wars, Armada, the comics, or even... egh... RiD... I wanna know. Personally I'm split between Wreck-Gar leader of the Junkions and The Fallen, one of the original 13 TFs and the first transformer to serve Unicron.

raveen92: This fic might have it's moments but I must go my own direction.

D. Mischief: Thanks, I try to be clever.

Fk306 animelover: I will. XD

Tigerprime: I thought of the harshest loss a TF could have, I figured this was the worst baring being the last of his kind or Cybertron being destroyed by Unicron.

roanman112 and sis: Don't worry, more of Steelburst's history will come.


	6. And they're off

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 6

"Ironhide, report to me at once." Optimus Prime ordered from his station overseeing a multitude of monitors and information readouts projected from multiple computer systems.

"Every time I look into a monitor, Prime, my circuits sizzle. When are we gonna start busting Decepti-chops?" Ironhide grumbled at the sight of various Decepticons flying and patrolling around Shockwave's command tower. Ironhide turned around in his swivel chair and waving an angry fist in the air as if he was silently cursing the Cyclops.

"I want you to make a special run to Autobot City on Earth." Optimus said calmly yet sternly pointed a finger at Ironhide.

"But Prime!" Ironhide complained. He wanted to remain here and retake Cybertron, a trip to Earth now might be a danger to the reclamation of Cybertron.

"Listen, Ironhide. We don't have enough energon cubes to power a full-scale assault." Optimus said in an almost apologetic tone, he didn't want to take Ironhide out of the fight but energon was just as important in these times as seasoned veterans. "Ready the shuttle for launch."

"Your days are numbered now, Decepti-creeps!" Ironhide said to the monitor as he pressed one final key and ran from of his swivel chair and out the command center's exit, transforming into a red minivan as he headed for the large shuttle in the background.

"Wow these guys had it a lot tougher fight than we did." Bud said in awe as he took a bite of popcorn ((Where'd he get that!?)). He, Lori, Coby and Red Alert had been watching old datatracks that Eject had uploaded into the computer for them to watch.

"So it seems. An energon shortage would make both sides desperate to destroy the other as quickly as possible." Red Alert said, although he never said it he was interested in seeing his other worldly counterpart.

"That was not the case," Eject said, pausing the playback. "Both sides fought for millions of years, running the planet's energon supplies until the entire planet suffered a planet wide shutdown. All transformers were rendered inert for millions more years while the Autobots and Decepticons were in stasis lock on Earth."

Coby looked at Lori. "You think any more of these Decepticons will show up?"

Lori shrugged. "I hope not."

---

"Well we have the Omega Lock, let's fire it up and destroy those Autobots!" Thundercracker said, once more acting like his old self. These Decepticons weren't like any Decepticons Thundercracker had known since Starscream... They were powerful, vicious, and willing to take on anyone and anything to complete their goals.

"We require two more things... Luckily Buzzsaw was able to gather the necessary data for the next part of our goal.."

"Oh no you aren't!" Thunderblast spoke up, she had had enough of doing all this work and putting her neck on the chopping block for a cause she didn't know anything about. "We're not helping you until we know why we just stole the Omega Lock."

Scourge scowled at the native Decepticons. He didn't need these fools, he didn't even need Soundwave but he believed that he could humor these pathetic wind up toys for now. "We are building a weapon of power never before known."

"A weapon? I wonder what kind of weapon it is..." Crumplezone wondered out loud.

"It will destroy the Autobots that's for certain. We have the first two components: an algorithm from our dimension and the Omega Lock. However there are two more items that we require, one of which we are heading towards now."

"Huh?" Thundercracker gave his usual show of intelligence, or lack there of. "What are ya talkin about?"

Scourge gritted his teeth, playing the role of an explaining leader was loosing it's appeal greatly. He would rather Squawktalk or Soundwave was there to take over but they were both on the bridge. "We are headed for an unnamed planet that is simply known as MP-15, from the data we stole it is littered with Albonite Crystals, which we will need to focus the weapon's energies."

"Scourge, I have entered the planet's coordinates." Soundwave's monotone image came over the intercom. "It will be some time before we arrive at the planet. May I suggest that everyone reload and recharge?"

Scourge snarled at his second in command's suggestion but silently admitted that he could not see any reason to argue with the concept. "Agreed Soundwave. All Decepticons are on stand by until we arrive at the planet MP-15. All slackers will be executed."

"Sir, what about the Terrorcons? Shouldn't we go back for them?" Soundwave asked.

"Do not question me Soundwave!" Scourge knew that those Terrorcons could fend for themselves. After all their entire purpose in this mission was muscle and little else. "Those lead brained fools are better off causing mayhem on Cybertron. We won't need them if we can complete our objective."

"But-" Soundwave never got to continue.

"A word of warning Soundwave, one more argument from you and you will be floating in space with a hole though your energon pump. Does that compute?" Scourge snarled, only wishing Soundwave's face could have been capable of grimacing.

"It does Lord Scourge." Soundwave said, turning off the microphone. "I warn you Scourge, continue to cross me and you will pay a high price."

---

Scourge was surrounded by all five Terrorcons, each of them looking very hungry.

"Okay you buggers, taste the steel of me axe!" Metroplex bellowed, bringing his weapon down in the spot in where Cutthroat was standing. The Terrorcon had however managed to vacate the area before being crushed.

"I thought we took care of him!" RipperSnapper shrieked.

"We crush big Autobot again..." Blot stammered in his normal unintelligent tone.

"Terrorcons! Combine and this time we shall not leave an Autobot left uncrushed!" Hun-Grrr snarled, giving the command to reform into Abominus. Once more Abominus stood over the Gigantion leader ready to end this now and forever.

"Abominus! Cease your rampage at once or face oblivion!" Came a loud roar.

Scourge and Abominus all turned to see a large camouflage patterned green Decepticon with a large rail cannon on his shoulder glaring down them. He wasn't as big as Metroplex or Abominus but he was taller than any normal transformer.

"Meg...a...tron..." Abominus's single word grinded out of his mouth, as if it was the first he had ever said in his entire existence.

"Did you hear me you brainless collection of junk? I said stand down!" The Decepticon shouted, pointed his shoulder mounted cannon at the Gestalt.

Abominus released the axe and kneeled to the large robot. Scourge and Metroplex were confused, who was this guy and how could he cow this mindless killing machine with words alone?

"Now disassemble and go. Tell Scourge that I want him to stop what ever he's planning. Or else feel the wrath of the true leader of all Decepticons!" The mystery bot commanded, pushing his rail gun into Abominus's face.

Abominus did as commanded and became the Terrorcons, who flew off under their own power, completely abandoning the fight. As soon as the Terrorcons were out of sight the large robot's body shifted and disappeared, revealing both Jazz and Hound with relieved expressions on their faces.

"Wow that was incredible, how'd you do that guys?" Hotshot asked excitedly, who had been watching everything from behind both of the more veteran Autobots.

"Easy really," Hound said, "I can project three dimensional images using my Hologram gun, and Jazz here learned how to mimic a certain Decepticon commander's voice perfectly."

"I wouldn't say that too loud when we get back Hound ol buddy. The real Megatron wouldn't be happy about us using his image like this." Jazz laughed, not that he really cared if he got on Megatron's nerves. Truce or no truce he wasn't about to let his guard down for even an instant around Decepticons. Besides it was Blaster who helped him imitate their old enemy.

"THAT was your Megatron?" Hotshot remembered Megatron as a powerful and compassionless transformer that did everything to further his own power. That Megatron seemed cold, more demanding, and downright blood thirsty.

"Yeah, that's him." Hound said. "If not for the Autobot Decepticon alliance we might not have a chance of defeating the second gen Decepticons."

"I can see why yee kept out of sight." Metroplex said. "That Abominus might be strong be he's obviously got a head as empty as Unicron's compassion file. Not that the separate Terrorcons are much better."

"Got that right." Jazz laughed. "Almost a shame we didn't tell them to tell us where their crib was."

Scourge huffed and walked off, feeling greatly embarrassed that the fight had ended like that. He wanted to grind that Gestalt into iron filings!

"What's with him?" Hound asked politely.

Scattershot shrugged. "Scourge is the grumpy honor type. You got someone like that in your dimension?"

Hound tapped his chin, possessing his memory banks for someone who fit that description. "I guess Grimlock could qualify."

Metroplex shook his head at all the damage Abominus had caused during the fight. There were cracks in the buildings, craters from Abominus's sonic concussion blaster and Scourge's fireballs had scorched the wiring of a information panel. "A shame really, this will take me and my boys the rest of the day to repair. We'll have to tear up half of this before we can begin."

"Well can you get your flyers to follow them?" Jazz asked. "Those nimrods should lead them right to that ship the other Decepticons jacked."

"Good idea, I'll radio Wingsaber and Jetfire. You guys go report to Optimus and tell him what's up." Scattershot said, activating his radio.

Hotshot nodded. "We'll see you there Scattershot."

Hound, Hotshot, and Jazz transformed and raced towards the command center, leaving Metroplex to call in his team to make repairs and Scattershot to radio Jetfire and Wingsaber.

To be continued.

A/N: Saw the movie... I was surprised how good it was. Peter Cullen as the voice of Prime touched the inner geek in me. It's kind of a cop out on the ending of this chapter but I need to be more regular with my chapters. And yes I made up Albonite crystals just for this fic.

Raveen92: Well I try to do good. Glad you're enjoying it. :D

Super Metal Sonic: Thanks dude. But you didn't tell me who's your favorite transformer.

RoseGad: SteelBurst: Aw... somebody cares...

D. Mischief: Thanks. But you didn't tell me who's your favorite transformer.

SpartanCommander: Thanks dude, means a lot from a fellow TF fan. Yeah, the kids will be getting a big shock later, but trust me if this was Armada and G1 the kids would be street pizza by now. The C kids are only about 1/10 as annoying as brad, Alexis and Carlos, the other kid and the fat kid (no I don't care to know their names). I agree about the dinobots, but what you have to remember about Grimlock is that he's not an idiot, he just has a speech impediment. Ya know a lot about TFs man, more than I do I'm sure.


	7. Testing limits

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 7

"Lord Megatron!" Onslaught cried as he transformed from his Missile Truck mode and ran up to his leader. "I have urgent news."

"Don't just stand there like a witless Sharkticon, tell me what's so important!" Megatron bellowed at the Combaticon leader, not liking to be kept waiting.

"Swindle discovered what happened on the security tracks on one of our science stations." Onslaught said, "Scourge stole copies of old Decepticon weapon schematics and accessed the Autobot database about this very solar collector."

"So Scourge has returned and acting on his own?" Megatron mused, surprised to hear that the old Sweep leader had returned.

Onslaught nodded, continuing his report. "Yes, but before coming here he released the Terrorcons from the Autobot prison. He attempted to release the Stunticons as well but the Autobots forced him to leave before he could accomplish that."

"What kind of weapons were stolen?" Preceptor asked. The Autobot scientist could barely believe that he was surrounded by Decepticons and wasn't a prisoner or being shot at. He reasoned this was just one of the oddities of war.

Onslaught didn't like the idea that an Autobot was here, working with all of his fellow Decepticons but it could not be helped. "Apparently they were to an experimental time window based on the observations of the device Unicron created when he attempted to go back in time."

Megatron tapped his chin, for once in a great many years he was clueless as to what was transpiring around him... and he hated it. "I want explanations, I want to know what Scourge was up to and what happened when he and the Terrorcons attacked, and I want those answers NOW."

"Well Megatron, thanks to the Consturcticons I can tell that Scourge and his forces were either vaporized or they were transported somewhere." Preceptor knew he was on thin ice, even with the alliance Megatron could still dismantle him in an instant if he was angered. "In the case of the latter I cannot make an accurate calculation as to their destination without the aid of my lab."

Megatron growled, Preceptor had failed to address him as 'Lord Megatron' or anything approaching the level of respect his own troops gave him. "Then go. Scrapper, I want to know immediately when he as a definitive conclusion. I want Scourge begging for his life for making the Decepticon forces look bad by deserting and showing up with his own plans for power. I will not tolerate another Starscream."

Preceptor would have asked Scrapper for a lift but he knew the Constructicon would never agree to it. Both instead ran, with the Autobot scientist leading the Constructicon leader to his lab.

---

-Meanwhile across dimensions-

Steelburst was sitting on another tower, watching the people below when the Decepticons made their getaway in the Atlantis. He was very surprised when a broadcast came over his comm. system:

"This is Scattershot! Jetfire, Wingsaber, Evac, whoever can hear me and able to fly I need you to follow the Atlantis to get a lock on it's destination before they make a transwarp jump."

Steelburst couldn't help but feel intrigued but this message. Granted it wasn't for him he felt like lending a helping hand. Without any other consideration other than his own interest in what was happening, not defeating the Decepticons, not the Autobot cause, not even saving the universe. Steelburst just silently wanted to help out this once. Transforming into his stealth jet mode he took off upwards towards the yellow speck in the sky that was shrinking by the second.

---

Jetfire and Wingsaber both flew as fast as they could but an ancient space ship had far superior thrust than both Autobots, not that Wingsaber would ever be willing to admit it.

"This is pointless, but the time we get close enough they'll be ready to make a transwarp jump and they'll be gone." Jetfire lamented, hating to admit this was a lost cause.

"Whoa, incoming uglies at six o' clock!" Wingsaber shouted, eyeing the incoming Terrorcons as they closed in from behind, all of them looking eager for a fight.

As he always preferred, Hun-Grrr took first blood by transforming into his twin headed dragon form and bit Jetfire's left with one of his heads. Jetfire scored the less noteworthy second blood when he shot both of Hun-Grrr's heads with his blaster. His weapon did little damage to Hun-Grrr's heavily armored frame but the blast was sufficient to stun him long enough for the Autobot to get his leg free and fly off, getting some distance from the hungry mauls of the Terrorcon leader.

Cutthroat, Rippersnapper, and the other Terrorcons were meanwhile ganging up on Wingsaber. The Terrorcons knew better than to interrupt their leader when he was in the middle of a meal and had instead focused on the other target for their aggression.

"Get off me you Jungle Planet rejects!" Wingsaber cried out, trying to punch and kick his way from the mess of biting mouths and slashing claws that surrounded him and were trying to take him apart the hard way.

---

"Hey we got pests outside." Crumplezone said. He and Ransack had been looking out the window, both Velocitrons had wanted to get a good look as they passed Cybertron's moons. "Should we ask Scourge if we could go out and 'play'?"

"Nah, I'm tired of tip toeing around that bearded freak. I wanna have some fun." Ransack said. "Besides, I think I see those Monsterbots or Horrorcons or whatever they're called starting a fire fight outside We'll just say we went outside to 'help out'."

"Man Ransack you think of everything." Crumplezone said as both Velocitrons made their way to the airlock. They would have simply exited and attacked if they hadn't been discovered by the other native Decepticons.

"Where are you two dimbulbs going in such a hurry?" Thunderblast asked in her usual smug 'I'm superior than you in everything' tone of voice.

"WE'RE going outside to have some fun with two lonely Autobots outside." Crumplezone announced. "Why don't you go do your nails or sumthin' Thunderblast."

"Hey now don't leave me out of this. Thundercracker wants to get in on the action." Thundercracker said, now itching for a fight just like he used to back in the days of Megatron.

---

"Those native clowns are outside fighting two Autobots." Rumble said as the small Decepticon as he pointed to the vid screen. "Should we get them back in before we make the jump boss?"

"... No. Call the Terrorcons back and let's see how they fare on their own." Scourge said with a cruel smirk, granted these Autobots would be outnumbered

Rumble shrugged and pressed a few buttons on the console. "Okay, this should be good. Hey Soundwave the channel's open."

Soundwave nodded and began his broadcast.

---

"Get ready Terrorcons! now is the time to-" Hun-Grrr shouted his battle cry to rally his combiner team but was cut off by an incoming comm. message.

"Terrorcons, return to the ship." Soundwave droned over the radio. "This is a direct order from Scourge, we want to see if these native Decepticons fight better or worse than maintenance droids."

Hun-Grrr grumbled, just once he wanted Scourge to not interrupt him when he was about to eat. Still that Targetmaster had been right about nearly everything so far, the Terrorcons would do as he said unless Scourge did not deliver all the Energon Hun-Grrr could eat as promised.

"Terrorcons, to the ship, leave this fight for the others!" Hun-Grrr shouted, motioning for all the other Terrorcons to abandon the fight and follow him into the ship.

"Others?" Jetfire wondered out loud. "Does this mean we get to take on that other Scourge?"

"No, he meant us you Auto bums!" Thundercracker shouted, his insult leaving much to be desired.

"Ugh... Why don't you guys just go home?" Wingsaber said, "We beat you when you had Galvatron and we'll beat you just as badly with these new guys you got!"

"We still got numbers on our side, just the way I like it!" Thunderblast shouted, unleashing a missile barrage from her launcher and signaling the others to attack.

Fortunately for the Autobots they were far enough from Thunderblast that they could avoid the attack rather easily. Normally Jetfire would love a chance to fight Thundercracker and the other Decepticons but these were not favorable conditions to fight.

"Wingsaber, we're outnumbered two to one, we need to fall back." Jetfire said, dodging laser fire from the Decepticons. "I know you normally like to show off but this isn't the time to-"

"I agree completely." Wingsaber shouted. "I may like to show the others how awesome I am but I'm not dumb enough to stick around in this firefight!"

Jetfire was more than a little surprised that Wingsaber was showing some common sense, having seen him use so little of it in battle before.

Steelburst had entered combat, having watched everything from a distance and in stealth jet mode so it would have been difficult to notice in the blackness of space. He had simply grown tired of watching this fight.

---

From the bridge of the Atlantis the Terrorcons watched the fight along with the cassettes, Soundwave, Fracas, and Scourge.

"There's your favorite chew toy Sinnertwin." Cutthroat chuckled. "A pity you didn't just snap him in half and sent him to the scrap heap."

"Rush a meal ruin a meal..." Hun-Grrr said, knowing where Sinnertwin was coming from. "After all he did scream very well. I only wish Soundwave was set on record when he began."

Sinnertwin nodded, relishing the thought of having the anguished screamed of Autobots to listen to while he sat in the CR chamber from time to time after battle.

---

Steelburst was a welcome addition to the fight, another ally for the Autobots and another target for the Decepticons. Jetfire was a little peeved that he had shown up now after all that work looking for him but he wasn't going to openly complain about help in this sort of situation.

Steelburst released a cloud of exhaust to give him some cover before laying down blasts form his blaster, but out of the dozen fired only one managed to hit Ransack in the shoulder, slowing down his cerebral functions to an uncomfortable level for the Velocitron turned Decepticon.

"Ugh... my head hurts..." Ransack complained as he stopped shooting and held his head as if it would have helped speed his processing time up.

"You okay Ransack?" Crumplezone asked, halting his own assault to look over at his partner in crime.

Ransack shook his head, shaking off the effects of the blast. "Yeah, I'm good. Now let's waste that guy!"

---

"The Transwarp drive is powered up and ready when you're done watching these fools." Soundwave said, almost sounding bored of watching these native Decepticons barely managing to hold off three Autobots.

"That's enough entertainment for one day, call them back in so we can be on our way." Scourge ordered. Scourge had found their performance barely worth the Energon it would take to keep them operating but they could always just destroy them when they didn't need them. The thought brought a smile to Socurge's face.

Soundwave gladly activated the comm. systems and began transmitting his message.

---

"Return to the ship, we're ready to warp to planet MP-15." Soundwave's voice came over the native Decepticon's comm. systems.

"But what about the Autobots? They'll follow us there if they get a fix on our direction!" Thunderblast objected, not afraid of Soundwave for a micro second.

"We have contingency plans if that should happen. Now get back to the ship or we're leaving without you." Soundwave warned before ending the transmission.

"I guess we head back to the ship." Thunderblast grumbled. "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm getting tired of this. This Scourge is far less fun than Galvatron ever was."

"Yeah but he was willing to slag us all when he got all that power from the Omega Lock." Thundercracker said, heading for the air lock in Atlantis.

"Don't leave now, the fun's just starting!" Wingsaber shouted, charging at Crumplezone who was lingering as he watched Thundercracker return to the ship.

Crumplezone was caught off guard as Wingsaber kicked him, ironically sending him flying into the Atlantis airlock flattening Thundercracker who had just landed and transformed.

Jetfire fired from a distance, but was surprised that the Decepticons were retreating despite having the number advantage... Then again the Terrorcons had fallen back because the other Scourge had called them back, these new Decepticons were watching them but for what reason he could not fathom.

Jetfire's momentary lapse in attention cost him a shot in the chest from Thunderblast's missile launcher before even the femme turned, better to obey Scourge than get on his bad side since he seemed to have a big plan in the works.

Before the other Autobots could react the Decepticons boarded and closed the airlock. Not a second later the ship stretched, seemed to bend a little and sling shot forward before disappearing.

"Well, that was odd." Wingsaber pointed out, looking over to the strange green and black robot floating nearby. "Nice to know we had some back up."

Steelburst just transformed and headed in the direction the ship had taken at full speed.

"Hey! You'll never catch up to them! You'll run out of Energon first or be there too late!" Jetfire called, however Steelburst didn't seem to notice and was gone by the time Jetfire finished.

"Is that guy stupid or something?" Wingsaber asked, "I mean those guys could be on the other side of the galaxy or even stopped, changed direction, and gone any which way."

"Not exactly. That last transmission was broadcast on all frequencies, even the Autobot channels." Jetfire said matter-of-factly, tapping the side of his head where his comm system was located. "They're heading for someplace called MP-15."

"So we just head back now? What about the whacko that took off?" Wingsaber pointed in the direction where Steelburst had taken off.

"Yeah, it'll be better if we go back and get one of the other ships and head there as fast as we can." Jetfire held up a hand before Wingsaber could object. "We'll catch Steelburst faster if we have a ship, I doubt he'll run into anything before we can get Optimus to warm up a ship."

Wingsaber couldn't argue with Jetfire's logic but the idea of just letting Steelburst get ahead of them like that got on Wingsaber's nerves. He wanted to just charge off but now it was hopeless, since he had already forgotten exactly what direction the green and black bot had taken.

"Let's go then." Wingsaber said, transforming and blasting off for Cybertron, closely followed by Jetfire.

---

Leobreaker had been surveying the area around the battlefield where Abominus had engaged Metroplex and Scourge when he found Scourge making minor repairs to himself in an alley. The reformatted Autobot scoffed, even though he had changed somewhat Scourge's ego would not allow him to admit that he needed medical treatment.

"I know you're there." Scourge said coldly, halting his repairs and stood to face whoever had been spying at him from the shadows. "Come out!"

Leobreaker stepped out, immediately earning a snort from Jungle planet leader. "I don't need help and if you don't mind I'd rather be left alone."

Leobreaker raised his hands and backed up, leaving the planet leader in peace. If he wanted to stew and be a major grump then Leobreaker would let him. He didn't feel exactly perky either. In less than an hour they had lost the Omega Lock, the Cyber planet keys, and the Atlantis... Not only that the Decepticons were now a powerful force with all these new Decepticons. Granted the Autobots now had four new troops but only Jazz and Hound seemed really valuable at fighting this new threat. The reformatted Autobot let out a tired sigh as he headed back to the command center to hear what Jetfire and Wingsaber had to report.

To be continued.

AN: okay okay, I don't know what kind of engines power the Atlantis. I know they probably aren't the powerful transwarp engines they had in beast wars but they're all I could think of. I have gotten back into my old routine of writing every night, however my insomnia has hit a high peak and I haven't slept well in a week. So until I start getting rested things may not speed up... much worse I have received a letter for Jury duty... ugh.

Super Metal Sonic- Same here. It's hard to pick favorites when there are so many cool ones. Personally I like Shrapnel, Soundwave, the Fallen, Shockwave, Wreck-Gar, and Blaster more than any other TF.

D. Mischief- I always liked Skywarp more myself, thanks for tellin me!

Fk306 animelover- Thanks. :)

SpartanCommander- I think you sir know more about transformers than anyone on Seibertron. Even my fandom has died down somewhat after 21 years of transformers. (Became a fan in 86), I hope you enjoy what's going to happen.

Tigerprime- I'll see what I can do.


	8. Blast off

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 8

"So they are heading for a planet called MP-15?" Scattershot mused, punching up the data on the distant world.

Optimus Prime, the children, Eject, Jazz, Hound, Hot Shot, Wingsaber, Jetfire, Leobreaker, Override and Red Alert stood as the image of the planet appeared. It was the second planet orbiting a small white dwarf star. In the children's point of view the planet itself seemed similar to Mars or the moon, with craters and mountains being it's only real features.

"It's a lifeless airless world that has a high concentration of albonite crystals." Scattershot said, reading the information that appeared on the screen. "It has various other sources of ore but the albonite is what this world it known for. A few old mines are scattered around the planet but none of them are all currently being mined."

"What are these crystals used for?" Hot Shot asked.

Scattershot turned in his chair to face the others. "Well albonite crystals are used in various ways. Since they naturally absorb energy in their normal crystallized state, albonite is used in shielding for radiation, high electrical storm protection on hostile worlds, and other such uses for its ability to absorb energy and store it. That is until it can't hold any more and explodes."

"Explodes? Does that mean they intend to make a bomb?" Override asked, worried that this might be used against her people and the bots on Cybertron.

"Not likely." Red Alert spoke up, tapping his chin (or the equivalent of) in thought. "Why would they want the Cyber Planet keys when these crystals can simply absorb energy from stars when they are close enough?"

Leobreaker nodded. "Yeah, that wouldn't make sense to go through all the trouble of stealing the Omega Lock when they could do that."

"There's more here than meets the eye." Optimus said. "We need to go after them, Override, I have to ask for the use of the Ogygia, the Velocitron ship."

"Of course Optimus, anytime you need help from Velocitron just ask." Override said, giving the Autobot Commander a smile and a thumbs up. Perhaps from spending too much time with Lori had worn off a little of the young lady's mannerisms.

"Can we come Optimus?" Bud asked, his cheery smile causing similar requests from Lori and Coby.

"No. Absolutely not." Optimus Prime said, throwing a hand out in a show of authority. "These new Decepticons are not the kind we knew where they'd mostly ignore you."

Lori and Bud were about to complain when Jazz spoke up.

"Optimus is just thinkin' about your safety kids." The Earth-wise Autobot said, giving the kids a friendly smile. "You remember what happened what Rippersnapper wanted to do to you? Y'know, he was that big ugly fish thing that leapt at ya."

Hound nodded silently in agreement. The otherworldly Autobot did not want to give the human children the wrong idea if he told them that Sinnertwin was scared of small creatures like humans. The Minicons could fill in that area if they needed badly.

---

"Hey Jazz, since you're the only one of the three of us that had any time even near the level of high command what do you think we should do?"

"Well, uh, I..." Jazz shrugged, he was only second in command for a short time in comparison to bots like Ultra Magnus and Grimlock, but he guessed it meant the others had just voted him their superior while in this universe. "Well -cough- Eject I guess ya should stay here with Scattershot to and try to help out with whatever ya can. Hound you n' me got some Decepticons to slag."

"What should we do when we find that glitching Steelburst?"

---

The ship had been launched and everyone on board was expecting a tough fight, but they had no unified hypothesis on the goal of these Decepticons. Leobreaker had been sent to check on the weapon cache they had brought along to ensure that they had enough energon and ammunition for the ship to hold their own. Leobreaker was uninterested in this task, after all he was a warrior not a clerk. His thoughts turned back to Scourge, shouldn't he have joined them? After all vengeance was always something he was motivated towards. Leobreaker didn't know what was going on at all, these new Decepticons had something big planned and they had no clue as to what it was, he hated being this unprepared before battle. Leobreaker suddenly noticed a spider like leg step out from behind a large crate of medical repair kits.

"A scrap metal?" Leobreaker's forearm claws were out in an instant and ready to take on what could be a small swarm of the mechanical vermin. Leobreaker leapt over the crates and landed on the small spider-tank transformer and tried to maintain a hold of it while it whipped and shook trying to get him off.

"Hey wait Leobreaker quit it!" The Scrapmetal yelled with a familiar voice.

"Hey wait, Coby?" Leobreaker, realizing his mistake he hopped off the Scrapmetal and turned with a sorry expression on his fanged face. "Hey sorry Coby I only saw one leg, part of the cockpit, and that cannon. I thought you were a Scrapmetal that was eating at the wiring or something."

"Nah it's just us." Coby said over the microphone.

"Us?" Leobreaker put his hands on his hips and frowned.

The cockpit of the altered Scrapmetal opened to show all three of the human children crammed into the one seated transforming vehicle. Lori and Bud both hopped out to stretch their legs, having been very uncomfortable having to sit on Coby's lap since they had snuck on board.

"Hey waitaminute Optimus said that you three should stay on Cybertron while Scattershot notified Evac to take you home." Leobreaker tapped his huge foot as he looked down at the children.

"Well, Optimus has given us that 'for your safety' speech countless times yet we always end up being useful in these situations." Lori said flatly, her legs still feeling stiff from being crammed in the cockpit of the Cobybot for who knew how long.

"While that might be true for a few circumstances," Leobreaker said firmly, "You're parents aren't going to be happy when Evac tells them he LOST you."

The children winced as a collective shiver went down their spines at the thought of both the brother's parents and Lori's glaring down at them after they got back to Earth. This didn't escape Leobreaker's sight and he chuckled at this little victory.

Leobreaker activated his communicator. "Optimus, I'm afraid I found three little stowaways on board."

"Oh no... Tell me it's not the kids..." Optimus groaned on the other end of the radio.

Leobreaker shrugged, suddenly feeling somewhat silly once he realized that the Autobot commander could not see his expression. "Uh, sorry Optimus but the kids are on board and there's not a lot we can do about it..."

An audible groan came over the communicator. "Just... keep an eye on them for while you lead them to the bridge."

As they walked from the cargo bay they were joined by Hot Shot, who would have praised the kids for their willingness to help but knew better than to figuratively stick his foot in his mouth.

"Nice to have you guys aboard kids." Hot Shot said, giving the kids a mock salute.

"Hey knock it off Hot Shot, it's just your regular band of stowaways." Bud joked, his smile was short lived as he saw something large drifting by the window. "Hey look, there's that weirdo Steelburst."

Hot Shot looked at the way Steelburst drifted, he seemed almost lifeless as he drifted along side the ship. "Is he even functioning?"

"Jetfire, Wingsaber, do you think you can bring him in?" Optimus asked over the radio, not sure if Steelburst was even alive from his apparent condition.

"Of course, that crazy bot helped us out so it's only fair to help him out." Wingsaber remarked as he and Jetfire walked away towards the airlock.

At times like this Optimus wished he still had Vector Prime for guidance, the ancient transformer had been a well of insight and intuitive thinking. He knew that with his team of Autobots could offer support but only the four Autobots from the other world knew anything about these attackers and their true mannerisms. Eject had provided raw data and personality traits but that was nothing compared to experience.

Wingsaber's activation signal pinged on the main screen of the ship. Optimus wasted no breath on an order and turned it on himself.

"Wingsaber to Ogygia. Something's really wrong with this guy, Red Alert you better take a look at him." Wingsaber's concerned voice came over the radio.

"Understood. Bring him in." Optimus ended the transmission and headed to the airlock, just in time to see both flyers awkwardly carrying a large flat jet. Optimus gave them a hand in bringing the jet to the medical bay of the ship.

"Alright, set him on the table and I'll take a look." Red Alert motioned to one of the large examination tables.

Optimus, Jetfire, and Wingsaber carried the lifeless jet over to the medical table, the large wings sticking ridiculously out over the table edge. Red Alert tapped on the nose of the plane, supposedly where his main processor was by the other Autobot's guess. While Red Alert began his examinations the other passengers on the Ogygia came in, having little else to do until they arrived at their destination.

"He's in stasis lock." Red Alert announced after completely checking out the emblemless Autobot over. "There doesn't seem to be any damage, and his systems are operating just fine."

"Will he be okay?" Override asked, not understanding what exactly was going on since she had always been more interested in speed than basic maintenance. She had always paid others to keep her running on the roads.

"I think so. It looks to be self imposed stasis." Red Alert said. "As irrational as he is it is a very cleaver trick. He brought himself up to a high speed and put himself into stasis lock to conserve energy."

"Kinda like freezing yourself for a long trip like in some of those old space movies I saw on the week long space and monster movie marathon." Bud said, making his brother kinda wince mentally at his analogy.

Red Alert understood Bud meant cryonics -the hypothetical method of putting a biological organism in suspended animation by freezing them- and went on with his explanation." Although clever, the more intelligent action would have been to simply to wait for us. In this state he could have drifted off course into a star or been hit by space debris or some other cosmic event that would have killed him."

"Red Alert, try to get him on his feet. We'll be needing every Autobot for this fight." Optimus said, worrying about how much of a threat Abominus would be against their entire force.

"We will be nearing the planet within a few hours." Red Alert said. "But don't worry, this is a simple matter."

Red Alert moved around to the side of the large black and green stealth craft and pulled off a part of the exo-structure revealing Steelburst's inner workings and began to fumble around inside until a loud click was heard and he transformed nearly trapping Red Alert's arm within the transforming bot during the process.

Steelburst's first reaction at being reactivated and forced into his robot mode was to look around in sheer confusion. He had just been flying through space and going into timed stasis lock to save energy and now he was flat on his back on a table surrounded by onlookers. The only thing that kept his surprised expression hidden from being known by the other bots and the children was his faceplate.

"Steelburst buddy how are ya?" Jazz slapped a hand on the reactivated bot's back. Actually Jazz had never really considered Steelburst a 'buddy' but he guessed a friendly attitude might be a better course of action while dealing with this glitched up Autobot.

Steelburst shrugged showing no interest in Jazz and looked around at the ship. Steelburst banged his heels together suddenly. "There's no place like home... no place like home..."

The other Autobots looked at each other, not understanding what he was blathering about. The Minicons were likewise confused, however the children attempted to stifle their laughter. Steelburst stopped his performance and looked around, as if he expected to be whisked away from this place and hung his head disappointedly, quietly adding "Damn."

"Well Steelburst," Optimus Prime began after a moment of questioning staring. "Are you up to helping us recover the Omega Lock and the Atlantis?"

Steelburst shrugged once more. "Okay."

Hot Shot looked at Override hoping maybe she'd have some clue to what this mixed up bot meant. However Override gave Hot Shot a look that mirrored his own confusion.

Steelburst gave no one another glance. Despite Red Alert's complaints that he should stay for more check up he got off the table and walked off, leaving the others.

Hound sighed. "Random that one is. Never can tell what he's thinking. More of a mental wreck then even Punch or some of the Stunticons."

Jazz only nodded his head at that remark. He wouldn't have gone as far as the Stunticons, those Decepticons were all created with flawed minds anyway.

Optimus looked over at his team, he knew he would have to ask much of them in the upcoming battle. "Hot Shot, how much longer until we arrive?"

"It shouldn't be long now. A few hours at most." Hot Shot said flatly.

"Everyone to your stations." Optimus ordered. "Jazz, Hound, can I trust you to keep an eye on the kids until we arrive?"

Jazz smiled, this would be just like when Spike or Buster used to hang around the Ark not long after the Autobots had awakened on Earth. "Not at all Prime."

Hound didn't mind either, unlike other Autobots like Mirage Hound enjoyed whenever he was on Earth or around humans. "Perhaps you could show us that, whaddya call it? Scrapmetal, you built."

Coby, not one to be modest about his greatest creation to date, lead both otherworldly Autobots to where the orange and gunmetal grey spider-tank was sitting.

---

The Decepticons meanwhile had set up operations above the planet and had begun to harvest the crystals from the mines thanks to specially designed karts and transformer sized gloves left behind by the miners.

"I can't believe a girl like me has to do manual labor!" Thunderblast whined, leaning against a mine cart full of the green glowing crystals. Scourge had ordered everyone on the ship to start gathering these crystals as soon as they landed and did not give the femme any special treatment. In fact he had to throw her off the ship and threaten to leave her here in order to get her to cooperate and mine with the others.

Ransack and Thundercracker were nearby letting out a loud grumble each time they accidentally came into contract with the energy draining crystals. Neither were exactly built for this sort of work, Ransack was too small to handle many of the larger crystals and Thundercracker was somewhat uncomfortable with all the albonite that could drain all his energon from his systems. More over Thundercracker was worried about what Scourge had said about if all the energon was drained from his body then the crystals would drain his own spark out of its protective shielded core.

Crumplezone however was proving more adept at this kind of work with his large frame and hands was able to do this job with relative ease in comparison to the others.

While the native Decepticons were using the mining equipment to pull the larger crystals out of the rock the Terrorcons would pull them to the surface for Soundwave and the cassettes to sort out the ones they needed from the rejects which they threw away into a pile.

"Hey Soundwave how many more of these rocks do we need?" Rumble shouted, the tiny Decepticon was growing sick of looking at these crystals and at the same time growing concerned that his energon levels were starting to be depleted by the crystals.

"What we have is insufficient, can only use flawless crystals." Soundwave said. "Any imperfection would cause an overload that would destroy all within a five thousand mile radius. Caution is recommended Rumble."

Rumble nodded and signaled for Slugfest to pull in another load of crystals to be put into a containment chamber so they cannot drain the energy of the Decepticons or the ship for that matter.

Scourge meanwhile was working on the computer on the ship, making calculations and battle plans for the upcoming battle. If he was right these Autobots would come in one ship and have a reasonably small force compared to what he had known in the past. He did not just expect the Autobots to come, he needed them to. Without one last factor his plan would not work and he would risk the rebellion of Soundwave, the cassettes, and the Terrorcons if he could not deliver what he promised them. The native Decepticons did not even enter his mind at the thought of the danger his own troops would pose under those circumstances.

To be continued.

OptimusxElita4ever - I'm using parts from mostly the comic universe but also bits of the animated movie, newer comics from devil's due and Dreamwave. But mostly I'm using what I remember from my childhood of watching the old G1 cartoons, and what little I know from the G1 and G2 comics. Unable to truly select a single venue, I've decided to combine what I know.

Dragon Alchemist (from chapter 2) - It's not that I misspelled it purposely, spellcheck just didn't go over it. I double checked that chapter and fixed every such error... I hope.

Xobit - Thanks for the praise. Makes me feel better. Trust me, things will be getting interesting soon. Always glad to talk TFs with fellow fans.

A/N: Just for your enjoyment, here's Steelburst's profile in the style of the More than meets the eye comics (be gentle it's the first time I've made a profile like this) that provided profiles on nearly every transformer who ever appeared in G1, and on the processes and planets and all that. And for an added bonus, there's toy stats too. Recently my compy exploded and I'm unable access any files. Thankfully I had a copy of this chapter on my 512k portable H drive. Still all my past works and even my sprite sheets are now gone. I'm pretty disheartened now... Lastly, this was finished on notepad so I hope the grammar's not too bad.

Jazzer's a sad panda...

Steel Burst - Autobot

Sub group: Headmaster/Micromaster

Function: Infiltration Operative

Bio: Steelburst has had it rough. From early on he's had to perform as a spy and thief who can sneak into any base and fortress and steal back any vital information and items for research. Which he is actually only moderately good at yet spouts that he is one of the best. His normally sour and anti-social attitude slowly began to change when he received his Headmaster partner Isaac. Isaac was a young human writer who joined the Autobots to learn more about them and with hoped maybe to write some books about his experiences someday. At first both of them wanted nothing to do with each other and bickered constantly but eventually they came to an understanding and began to work quite well together. However Isaac was terminated when the Swarm attacked Cybertron, devouring both of them. When the Swarm was granted sentience Steelburst was rebuilt, however Isaac could not be simply restored and ever since then Steelburst has been shown to have been damaged mentally due to being binary bonded to Isaac at the time of his death. Steelburst's mental instablability and erratic behavior has caused his respect to plummet and not many Autobots are willing to work with him. He also never talks about Isaac and goes into a rage when someone mentions him.

Weapons and abilities: Subject has average strength and intelligence and has impressive speed and maneuverability in both robot and jet modes. He can store exhaust from his own systems in compartments around his body and use it to produce a thick smoke from six exhaust ports on his back that can shroud him from view but this can only be done once until the exhaust can be replaced. Subject's light frame and lack of armor allow him to move almost silently about in both modes. He carries a Three-Bladed Knife for close range and a Decelerator laser that inhibits an enemy robot's flow of cerebral impulses. His Headmaster component has been converted into a Micromaster component for subject's use in infiltration.

Weaknesses: Subject's weaknesses are his growing mental instability, his lack of armor makes him prone to damage, and his growing unpopularity and bad reputation make others uncomfortable to work with him. His Headmaster Component is extremely weak and vulnerable.

Specs: Strength: 5 Intelligence: 5 Speed: 8 Endurance: 4 Rank: 2 Courage: 6 Firepower: 7 Skill: 6


	9. Out of the pan

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 9

Megatron was not happy. Optimus Prime had arrived and was getting briefed on the situation at hand. Even after all this time since the Swarm and the Autobot-Decepticon alliance Megatron could not let go of the many battles the two had spent locked at each other's throat. He would never admit that he had to give Optimus respect for his skill at battle tactics and diplomacy but one does not wipe away millions of years of anger and frustration away in a matter of months.

Megatron's irritation only increased when Scrapper and Perceptor returned.

"This solar collector was based on one of Wheeljack's creations alright." Perceptor said, noting the sour look on the Decepticon commander. If he did not tread carefully he could end up causing an... incident.

Scrapper, who was more used to Megatron's foul temper continued from where Perceptor left off. "From what we can tell from the original plans the device was not originally a solar collector. Many of the sections of the device were erased and replaced bit by bit until it resembled a collector."

Megatron looked at the device, it did indeed look like a solar collector with nothing really special about it. "Then what was it before?" Megatron asked gruffly.

"There's no way to be sure sir." Scrapper answered. "The plans were altered so long ago and so much there's not much to go on."

"But based on what happened here," Perceptor continued, "It is either a weapon capable of vaporizing Cybertronians completely, or some sort of transporter. And since I cannot find any residual remains of the guards or attackers I would have to conclude at the latter choice."

"Then I suggest we get it working again as fast as possible." Optimus Prime said, walking up to the trio. "Both to get back Hound, Jazz, Eject, and Steelburst but to make Abominus, Soundwave, and Scourge face their commander."

Megatron smirked, liking the idea of throwing Scourge into the smelting pool himself. "You heard him. Get to work!"

Scrapper and Perceptor saluted their respected commanders and rushed back to repair the device. While still at peace, no one wanted to anger Megatron for fear of termination.

Optimus shook his head. Would Megatron ever loosen up?

---

Meanwhile across reality...

"Well that's it." Rumble said. "That's all the crystals we need. What now Soundwave? Do we leave the hired help on this energy draining planet?"

Soundwave enjoyed seeing his companion acting so viciously. It was something Soundwave found to admire in the small Decepticon. However Soundwave shook his head. "Negative Rumble. Scourge still wants them around for manual labor... and as blast shields."

---

Steelburst was now sitting in the cargo bay, away from everyone else. He felt tired... not physically but mentally. Like the kind of tired you feel when you give up on a difficult puzzle or quiz. He was sitting on a crate of spare parts, not really caring if his weight was causing any damage to the parts. Whatever was going through that mind of his was interrupted by the sound of quiet arguing from below him on the floor.

"Hey Steelburst, there you are. Bud's got something to say." Lori said, nudging the younger child in the ribs. "Isn't that RIGHT Bud?"

Bud cleared his throat, if this wasn't good enough Lori had promised to kick his butt until they got back to Earth. "Hey I'm sorry or what I said back on Cybertron. I hope I didn't say anything to upset you." Bud said, "Still wanna be friends?"

Steelburst, seemingly always able to shock and confuse people in this reality, gave the kids the greatest surprise they had ever seen when Steelburst pulled his head off his shoulders.

"Call Red Alert! Steelburst's committing suicide!" Bud screamed, flailing his arms around franticly.

Coby and Lori just stared with their mouths hung open in utter shock. Both completely at a loss for words.

Steelburst's head component shifted and transformed, becoming a Minicon sized transformer, wielding Steelburst's faceplate as an oversized shield on his left arm. Other than being scaled down, the Minicon sized transformer had arguably the same design as Steelburst although it lacked the wings, and other parts that suggested a stealth jet alternate mode.

"Did Steelburst just become a Minicon?" Lori asked out loud, more to herself than Bud or Coby.

"No, Steelburst has a Micromaster mode. It's what some Transformers used in our world to conserve fuel during the war before the Great Shutdown, using the larger bodies for combat." Hound said. "I never used that myself, in fact few Transformers I know opted for the Micromaster program."

Jazz nodded, thinking back to that time with an unhappy frown on his face. "Either way everyone on Cybertron was suddenly and unexpectedly shut down. Many right in the heat a' combat."

"Wow... That's harsh." Bud mused. "So what are we going to be doing once we get to the planet? Can I work the ship's guns?"

Jazz laughed, he couldn't help but like this kid. "No no no Bud."

"It would be better if you three got in that Scrapmetal bot of yours and found a secure place to hide." Hound advised.

Lori groaned and rubbed her legs at the thought of climbing back in that cramped thing. She did not argue though, this was going to be a difficult battle and she knew when to pick her battles better than that.

---

"Lord Scourge, long range sensors have detected a ship approaching." Soundwave reported over the ship's intercom. "Autobots approaching. Recommend falling back to a more defensible position."

"Agreed." Scourge said, not even trying to hide the calculating smirk on his face. Not that there was any around that could see it. "Get the 'help' back in the ship. "

"Affirmative." Soundwave droned, turning off his communicator and turning to his cassettes. "Sorting of crystals complete. Go to the bridge and ready for take off. Squawktalk, go inform others of our departure."

The never-silent condor bot flew off, saying something to the degree of 'yes sir Soundwave, anything to help out Soundwave, for the Decepticon cause!' only much more stretched out and shifting between at least languages. Needless to say the other cassettes were glad to hear some silence now that Squawktalk was gone.

"Hey Soundwave, you think we could just leave Squawktalk here on this rock?" Rumble said, giving Soundwave a rare pleading look. "We could say it was an accident."

Soundwave shook his head. "Scourge has plans for them. Continue to the bridge and prepare to take off."

The red and black cassette nodded and rushed off towards the bridge. Soundwave turned to see Squawktalk fleeing from a highly irritated Ransack who was swatting at him with a large mining pick. Despite their dislike for these wimpy native Decepticons, none of the other cassettes could fault Ransack for trying to shut the annoying condor up. Primus knew they all had tried before.

"You four are to head to the bridge." Soundwave said. "I must stay and assist in proper storage of the crystals."

"Heh, have fun Soundwave." Ransack said, running towards the door and as far away from that little blabber mouth that had been circling his head.

Crumplezone, Thundercracker, and Thunderblast followed suit. All of whom had thought the little Decepticon trying to hit the even smaller cassette with a pick was the funniest thing they have ever seen. Soundwave only went back to supervising the cassettes and thinking of what the crystals would do once all was ready for the final plot.

---

The engines rocketed to life as the ship took lifted itself off the surface of the desolate planet, shaking the native Decepticons as they headed through the metal corridors as they headed to the bridge.

"Okay Scourge we dug out your stupid crystals, now I think you owe us an explanation about what all this is about!" Thunderblast shouted in her usual bossy manner. Even going so far as to point accusingly at the Unicron-constructed Decepticon.

"Let me ask you this then," Scourge said, not taking his optics off the sensor readings, "How would you like Galvatron back?"

"You could bring back the big guy with those crystals?" Thundercracker said, the idea of having their old leader back was almost beyond belief. He may have deserted them once he had gained near omnipotence but Thundercracker and the rest of the native Decepticons could not deny having him back would set their lives back on the bad track.

Scourge would have answered if his attention hadn't been drawn back to the control panel as a small button began flashing as the video screen showed a ship sized warp gate opened not far from the planet. Scourge smirked and raked a few claws through his beard at the thought of playing with these native Autobots again.

"It seems we need to by some time to plot a new course that will not shake the crystals too violently." Scourge said, turning to point a red claw at the native Decepticons. "You four go out and engage the enemy, the Terrorcons will support you."

"Ooo, I like that news." Crumplezone said, nudging Ransack. "Let's get to the air lock and get to smashing!"

Ransack only chuckled and nudged back, the smaller Velocitron couldn't agree more with his larger companion.

All nine Decepticons walked to the air lock and disembarked. Thunderblast and Ransack said nothing, but they felt the entire that the Terrorcons were looking at them like they were picking out which parts to eat first.

---

The ancient ship Ogygia came out of the final leg of it's journey, everyone near a window could see a large barren rock of a planet. The children were in awe of the sight but for the Autobots who could see farther and better than the humans, saw the yellow speck that was slowly rising off the planet's surface.

"They're taking off." Red Alert said from the science station on the bridge, "And from the instruments I believe they're plotting a course."

"Where to?" Hotshot asked, turning from his post at the helm to look at Red Alert.

"I'm not sure." Suddenly Red Alert turned to Optimus sharply, and alarm going off at his station. "Optimus, they're opening fire!"

"Evasive maneuvers!" Optimus shouted, looking over at Hotshot.

Hotshot hurriedly typed buttons on the control panel, causing the ship to lurch towards its starboard side throwing many of its non bridge personnel to the port side walls of the ship. However well timed, Hotshot's serving proved too little too late. Only one of the barrages missed, the others found their mark on the starboard engines, and knocking out main weapons.

"Is everyone alright?" Optimus asked, looking around at the Autobots who were getting back to their posts.

"I'm fine..." Hotshot grumbled as he climbed back into his seat.

"Alright people, let's save a case and make sure they stay here." Optimus said, knowing now that his team was okay he could now concentrate back on the battle at hand. "Return fire!"

"I'm afraid a little too late to retaliate sir," Red Alert said, tapping buttons on the controls. "Weapons are offline and from the looks of the sensors we have an attack force heading our way."

"What kind?" Hotshot asked, not knowing if Red Alert meant fighters or Transformers.

"Four familiar faces and one large menace that can tear holes in buildings." The medical Autobot said grimly, frowning slightly.

Optimus frowned, this was not what he had expected to find here. With a commanding tone he began to issue commands while hoping inwardly that this would end better than their last encounters with the Gestalt. "Red Alert, Override, I want you to stay here and get the ship repaired. Get the Minicons and the children to him if necessary. Everyone else is to prepare to repel boarders."

Override was the only one that elected to stay behind to look after the ship, actually she was not liking the idea of a fight where using her tires was impossible. All other Autobots had ran to the airlocks and was now standing on the outside hull facing their incoming enemies.

"Optimus?" Leobreaker said, looking at his leader with some speculation "Should we powerlink?"

"No, I think we will need numbers in this battle." Optimus said. "We can powerlink in battle if we need it, concentrate fire on the Decepticons and leave Abominus to Jazz, Hound, and Steelburst. They should be able to distract him long enough until we can send the Decepticons packing."

Optimus's plan was well thought out and probably would have gone very well if Steelburst had actually followed through with it. Before Optimus had even stopped speaking the off balance Autobot had ran across the hull towards the incoming Decepticons.

"Steelburst wait!" Jazz cried.

Too late. Steelburst had transformed to his alternate mode and shot straight at the incoming force. Foregoing the larger targets, Steelburst was like a triangular missile as he plowed into Thunderblast at full force. The femme's chest plating was punctured by the stealth jet's nose, trapping her as he continued to move away from both groups.

Thunderblast screamed, looking backwards to see where they were headed. To her horror she saw that this insane Autobot was headed back down towards the planet.

"Watch out you moron!" Thunderblast shouted, pounding and kicked at the jet. "If you keep this up we'll both fall into the atmosphere and end up going splat!"

Steelburst either didn't hear her or did not care, as both of them began to feel the heat of reentry.

---

The other native Decepticons momentarily stopped, considering going back to help Thunderblast. However that thought was thrown out the window by a loud bellow from the large purple Gestalt that had begun firing at the Autobots as he rocketed towards the barrowed Velocitron ship.

"Any tips on fighting this one guys?" Hotshot exclaimed, unable to tear his optics away from the gigantic terror rushing towards them.

"Just that he's as dumb as drift wood and about as quick." Hound said. "Oh, and he can shrug off almost anything you hit him with."

"Wonderful..." Hotshot grumbled, wishing that Hound had given something more useful like a soft spot in Abominus's armor or a spot that would force the monster to disassemble into his five component bots. Not that fighting five more enemies was an appealing thought, it still sounded better than fighting this monster.

Abominus slammed head on into the ship, actually pushing the enormous space craft backwards and throwing equipment and a certain Scrapmetal tank around.

---

"Everyone okay?" Coby asked, rubbing his head where he and Lori had collided heads during that last jolt.

"Other than the dent in my head, I'm okay..." Lori grumbled, highly uncomfortable and silently wishing that Coby had put in more than one seat.

"I wanna get off this ride..." Bud mumbled, looking kinda green.

"Bud you feelin' all right?" Coby asked, having never seen his younger brother look car sick before.

"No... I don't wanna be cramped in here like sardines..." Bud mumbled, rubbing his upset stomach.

"Sorry Bud but it's better than being out there, those boxes and crates would smash you like a bug." Coby said. "It's best we do what the Autobots told us and stay in here where until the battle's over."

"Ah you just wanna stay close to your girlfriend..." Bud said... a moment before loosing is lunch on his brother's shoes.

To be continued.

AN: okay, this time I have a good excuse for being late. We had a death in the family and then we had a car wreck... Things have been hell... I'll try to get faster in updates but things... even though my attention is so divided among so many hobbies...

OptimusxElita4ever - as flawed as the G1 Cartoon was it still holds a place in my childhood as being awesome. hope you like it.

Super Metal Sonic - thank you.


	10. From bad to worse

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 10

Abominus howled as his heavy feet clanged on the hull as he charged the Autobots, scattering them and making them targets for Thundercracker who flew above them while firing his weapons and laughing loudly to himself.

"Man this is almost as good as shooting at defenseless little drones." Thundercracker had Jazz pinned down, the white and black Autobot had sought refuge inside the airlock from the native Decepticon who was shooting at him. "I can't wait till we get all this over with and I get my own sector of the universe, I'll get to do whatever I want!"

"This guy seems to like the sound of himself talking a little too much. Kinda reminds me of Bluestreak..." Jazz frowned, nearly hit by a stray shot from the windbag overhead.

Thundercracker smirked, almost giddy to take down an otherworldly Autobot and continued to fire. That was until he noticed the large asteroid that was heading straight for him. Thundercracker transformed into his jet mode and blasted his engines to get out the way only to catch a blast of laser in his left tail fin spinning out of control in mid flight.

Hound grinned, turning off his hologram of the asteroid. He was glad Jazz had noticed the large hunk of rock appear out of nowhere. "Surprising what a little hologram can do."

Hound should have paid more attention as Hound was blindsided by one of Crumplezone's fists, knocking the green Autobot upward into the airlock and into Jazz who hadn't time to warn his friend.

"That was a dirty trick." Crumplezone said, seeing his little companion drive up behind him, transforming into the small Velocitron turned Decepticon.

Ransack nodded at what Crumplezone said, "Yeah it was, wish we could do that kinda trick."

"I think you forgot about us!" Wingsaber said, blasting the area around two Velocitrons with shots over head in his jet fighter mode.

Hotshot then picked off a few easy shots that sent Ransack spinning to the bow of the ship. The free spirited Autobot took some time to revel in his work and did some name calling. Too much time in fact. Abominus loomed overhead from behind Hotshot and was about to smash the Autobot with his open hand like an insect when Leobreaker leapt in, hoping to catch the Gestalt in the face with his bladed whip. Abominus meanly knocked Leobreaker aside with his free fist and grabbed Hotshot. Not satisfied with just one target Abominus grabbed Wingsaber out of the air his other hand and smashed them together, making Hotshot drop his weapon. Both didn't need to say that they would not get out of this without possibly severe damage.

---

"Ugh..." Thunderblast grumbled, shaking her head. She didn't know why she was in so much pain but that irritation dissipated as soon as she remembered what had happened. Looking around she was laying in the smoldering crater that she had apparently made upon landing. There was no sign of the insane Autobot but that was only a small compensation for the damage she sustained. There were bits of crystal jammed in what felt like every portion of her body, a large tear in her chest, and her legs refused to move on her command. Despite her condition she felt pretty good. She had survived reentry and a crash landing on a barren rock planet and even taken out an insane Autobot. Thunderblast leaned back, not caring that her energon levels were slowly going down... she knew the boys would come back for her as long as Scourge let them.

Her moment of peace was shattered as she was suddenly shoved from underneath and into the dirt. After wiping the filth off her glorious face to see the very Autobot that brought her down to this boring rock of a planet. His wings were bent and broken, he had only a quarter of the crystals in his armor, one of his optics was shattered, and his left arm was lying on the ground far from where both Autobot and Decepticon were now.

"You survived too?" Thunderblast screamed, reaching for her missile launcher which was no longer within her grasp. To her irritation Thunderblast could see her weapon smashed into pieces from impact outside the crater. The sight of Steelburst's weapon broken in half on a rock not far from it was little compensation.

Steelburst slowly stood, shaking and looking like he would fall to the rocky ground any second. He stood over Thunderblast with one green optic staring at her.

"Like it matters what you do." Thunderblast shook her head. Her internal fuel gauge was alerting her that her energon levels were already dipping down to fifty percent thanks to the crystals imbedded in her chassis. "From the looks of the both of us we'll both be offline soon."

Steelburst looked at her for a second longer before removing his faceplate revealing the face underneath. Thunderblast was surprised that there was anything behind that faceplate but her thoughts lasted only until Steelburst lurched down to reach into the opening in Thunderblast's chest and pull out her main fuel cable and refuel himself with her own energon.

"You sick... monster! How dare... you..." Thunderblast garbled, before edging off into the blackness of stasis lock. Her last sight was Steelburst tossing the power cable aside and reaching into her chest again.

---

"Scourge," Soundwave said, "They have effectively pinned the Autobots down, should we join the battle if only to accurate your plan?"

Scourge's affirmative came in the form of roughly grabbing his Targetmaster partner Fracas from where he had been watching the monitors and forcing him into his gun mode despite the Nebulon's loud complaints. After procuring his living weapon Scourge simply stormed out the door, leaving Soundwave and his cassettes alone on the bridge.

Soundwave had to guess this was one of those instances where he had to take some initiative and ordered Rumble and Buzzsaw to transform and enter his chest compartment. Before leaving the bridge he gave the remaining cassettes orders to guard the ship incase the Autobots attempted to board, even though Soundwave knew that was a highly unlikely situation.

---

"How are repairs going Coby?" Override asked, doing all she could to weld the larger parts of the ship together that the kids and Minicons could not reach. Being a racer and not a mechanic she was sure she'd hear complaints from Red Alert after the battle.

Coby and the Minicons were doing most of the work repairing the ship's software and more complex parts inside the ship's engines. The damage was enough to keep both humans and Transformers busy for a while. Lori and Bud were sitting on the side lines, not knowing a thing about these things and helping out mostly by retrieving tools and such. All of them were trying to put the incident in the 'Cobybot' out of their minds.

"It'll take a while but it's fixable." Coby said, not stopping his repairs for an instant. "I just hope Optimus and the others are going to make it back okay."

"They'll be fine." Override said sternly. "They can handle these new losers but we'll need the engines repaired if they decide to turn tail and run like Decepticons usually do."

Bud nodded. "Yeah I'm sure Optimus will send those guys packing like they always do!"

"That's the spirit!" Override said, smiling at the young human's cheer. "Now back to work, I want these engines online before they get back!"

The humans and Minicons gave the Velocitron leader a salute before going about their varied tasks.

---

Abominus growled, shaking both Autobots in his unbreakable grasp as he began to crush Hotshot and Wingsaber in his massive hands. The strain of metal bending would have made the other Autobots flinch if the vacuum of space permitted such noise. All that came over the open comm. channels was the pained struggles of Hotshot and Wingsaber and the unintelligible snarls that came from Abominus.

Leobreaker snarled his own feral cry and leapt on the Gestalt's back in his lion mode, raking with his claws and biting with his fangs. Abominus felt little pain, but roared his annoyance anyway. He halted his crushing on Wingsaber long enough to allow Wingsaber to see Leobreaker a second before being used like a weapon to knock Leobreaker off Abominus's back and into the ship's communication array. Leobreaker shook his head, willing to return to battle but was stuck in the hole that he had created in the metal device. If Abominus had hit him any harder he could have gone through the hull, causing explosive decompression and destroying the ship.

Jazz, Hound, and Red Alert shot at the Decepticons from whatever cover they could find, neither side doing much impact on the other. Thundercracker had abandoned his jet mode and was now fighting in his robot mode. Crumplezone and Ransack had called on their planet keys to increase their firepower and were doing their best to match the three Autobots left for them to fight.

Optimus was momentarily torn, should he stay and help Hound, Red Alert, and Jazz who were going toe to toe with Crumplezone, Thundercracker, and Ransack to even the sides or brave the odds against Abominus? For Optimus it took only a second to recognize where he was needed more and even less to begin shooting at the much larger composite Decepticon.

Optimus activated his super mode, combining with the rest of his vehicle mode and gaining two large blasters in the process. Calling for his Cyber planet key Optimus activated his weapons and shot at Abominus, who was hit hard enough to throw the Gestalt backward and separate him into the five Terrorcons. The Autobots below were so focused on the small groups they were fighting they did not notice the two newcomers.

"Greetings Optimus Prime." Scourge said over an open comm. channel.

Optimus looked up, there was the bearded blue Decepticon floating above him with his weapon aimed squarely at the Autobot commander's chest. Taking no time for idle banter, Scourge fired his weapon. Optimus was unable to dodge fast enough as the shot hit its target and knocked a hole in the Autobot commander's chest plate.

"Buzzsaw, Rumble, eject. Engage Autobots." Soundwave said, opening his chest compartment and ejecting Rumble and Buzzsaw towards Wingsaber and Hotshot who drifted above the hull of the ship in stasis lock.

Both cassettes stopped in front of the two out-of-action Autobots. Rumble smirked, he loved his sort of tactic. "Okay big cheese, surrender or else I put so many holes in this tin-bot he'll look like a colander."

Buzzsaw did not make any threats, the cassette only aimed its weapons at Hotshot's head.

Soundwave landed in front of Leobreaker pointing his blaster and shoulder mounted rail gun at his chest, where he guessed Leobreaker's spark core was located. Somehow the lack of a face made the Decepticon communications officer look all the more sinister. Leobreaker had no choice but to sit back in the hole he had made and watch grudgingly as the Terrorcons encircled Optimus.

"Alright Scourge, what is this all about?" Optimus demanded, surprised and disgusted that Scourge would sink lower than even Megatron by resorting to tactics like this to win. "What are you planning?"

"What this is all about?" Scourge chuckled, smugly pointing his Targetmaster partner at Optimus. "I want the Matrix. I require it. Give it to me or your friends will be terminated."

"Why do you want it? It's no use to a Decepticon." Optimus asked, attempting to stall for time. What for he wasn't sure but time was something that might present him with an edge. "Tell me what you are up to."

Scourge reached up and brushed his mustache with his claws, he saw no reason not to drop hints and revel in this conquest a little. "If you must know... I plan to recreate the Decepticon Empire using old faces."

Optimus was confused, what exactly did Scourge intend to do. "What do you mean? You can't possible bring back the dead. When a spark goes off line-"

"Yes yes spare me your dogma." Scourge interrupted, waving off Prime's lecturing speech. "I know sparks return to the Matrix once a Transformer is terminated. But I don't have time to spare, we have much to do and I can't wait to see some old 'friends' again."

"Sorry Scourge but you aren't getting the Matrix." Optimus said. "What you plan to do would put everyone at risk. I don't know what the details of your plans are but I can't just surrender the Matrix to you."

"Fine. Terrorcons..?" Scourge said looking over at his savage allies. Hun-Grrr wasted no time in putting a blast through Optimus's left leg, then his right. Each Terrorcon transformed to their beast mode and clamped their teeth on the Autobot Commander, holding him in place. Scourge showed a fanged grin as he heard Optimus's loud cry of pain as he stalked over to the Autobot leader, clicking his claws together before he began to tear bits of Optimus's chest away and rummage around inside looking for the Matrix.

"Scourge! Stop!" Optimus pleaded, finding himself unable to move with the Terrorcon's many rows of teeth in his body.

Scourge's smirk only widened as he looked upon the glowing object he ripped from Optimus's chest.

To be continued.

AN: Okay, I think we can all guess that the Transformers would have to use communicators to talk in space since sound cannot exist in an airless vacuum. Oddly, this is only explained/suggested in the comics and is never even mentioned in any of the cartoon series... a little TF nugget for you.

Jferrin- Thanks a lot dude, as for Cy OP and G1 OP teaming up... you'll just have to wait and see.

SpartanCommander - yes, I freely admit that this plan is beyond the minds of the 4 native Decepticons (Especially Crumplezone XP) and Scourge is plotting something really big. As for the power source needed that's why they stole the Cyber planet keys and the Omega Lock. Now as for G1 Megs's title, I guess I was heavily influenced after watching my DVD collection of Beast machines, that Megatron used the title of Lord. If that hurt my standing in the G1 fandom I'm sorry, but again I didn't get a chance to read a lot of the comics. I'll stop using that title from here on.

SpartanCommander - (from chapter 8) Ah the pretender shells... That actually crossed my mind but I decided against it, since at the same time I could have made Soundwave and Jazz Action masters. But I never liked the idea of Transformers not being able to transform. In my opinion the worst idea Hasbro made (yes, even worse than Go-bots). A Pretender may show up later, you'll have to wait and see.

OptimusxElita4ever- Awesome! I can't get hold of the old G1 DVDs... to expensive now that they're in the hands of collectors. I have some on crappy DVRs but most of season 2 is utterly broken. Hope you like the old show, what started the entire TF craze:D

GrimlockX4- Wow... thanks a lot dude. :D I'm very pleased at the reception BB is getting, and I'm glad people aren't bashing it because I added a original fan character in my series. Steelburst is what I want to be if I were a transformer. I look forward to seeing your fic, even though I didn't really care for Energon or Armada all that well. Cybertron was great but those two weren't very good (although FAR superior to RiD) yet pales compared to G1.


	11. Secrets revealed

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 11

Scourge reveled as he glazed upon the glowing blue sphere in its oval-shaped container. He remembered how much Thunderwing had obsessed over this device and he knew how much the Pretender would kill to get his hands on it. Scourge chuckled at the idea of Thunderwing demanding it of him while being trapped under Abominus's foot.

"Scourge! I'm hungry can't we eat what's left of him?" Hun-grr growled, if he was capable of it he would be salivating at the sight of a tasty Autobot laying broken and only barely clinging to life.

"No... Leave him." Scourge said. "Leave his broken remains here to let the rest of the Autobots see the fate that awaits them. Decepticons, fall back!"

The Terrorcons growled, very displeased that they had to leave behind such appetizing spoils but if what Scourge said was true and they would have more than their fill when it was all over. Rumble and Buzzsaw transformed and returned to the safety of Soundwave's chest compartment before Soundwave flew off to follow his comrades.

"Fall back?" Thundercracker whined, with the loss of the Terrorcons it was now three against eight and even Thundercracker wasn't confidant to take those odds. "Wait for me boss!"

"You know I get the feeling that that Scourge guy doesn't really care about us." Ransack said, kicking off from the ship to head towards the Atlantis.

"Did Megatron ever care?" Crumplezone asked, showing a rare show of wit and following Ransack like the lackey he was.

"Good point." Ransack nodded his head. "We better keep our eyes on open for trickery."

Thundercracker turned his radio to broadcast directly to Scourge, the channel was still open to his comrades he simply wanted to get Scourge's attention. "Hey boss-man, aren't we going to go get Thunderblast? She fell into the atmosphere with that other 'bot."

"She met her end taking an enemy with her to oblivion. A noble death." Scourge said. He didn't really care if Thunderblast survived. If she were to make it back to Cybertron alive on her own he would consider her a worthy Decepticon, inferior to himself but worth still exploiting further.

Below the Autobots scrambled out of their cover to find a harrowing sight, their leader and inspiration laying in tatters amid the weightlessness of space. Red Alert, the only native Autobot not stricken stiff by the view of Optimus torn to pieces raced over and checked the collection of chassis bits and parts. Hound and Jazz were sickened by the sight but the two Autobots felt more helpless than saddened, having seen this before with the Terrorcon's victims.

"His spark core (1) is intact and stable... We need to get him in for repairs stat!" Red Alert urgently ordered.

Jazz and Hound aided their otherworldly cousin in gathering up Optimus's parts and returning with them to the medical bay of the Ogygia. Once all of the Autobot commander's pieces were in place and Red Alert began to hook up Optimus's spark core to life support Jazz and Hound returned to space to pull Leobreaker out of the communications array.

"Took you long enough!" Leobreaker grumbled, annoyed that he was held prisoner by a Decepticon that wasn't even half his size.

"Sorry, but we had to get Optimus to the repair bay." Hound said, "As a code X medical emergency(2) he had priority."

Leobreaker was shocked to hear that Optimus, his commander and friend was in such bad shape since he had taken down Megatron without such a severe condition. "Those Decepticons did that bad a job on him?"

"Anyone who takes on the Terrorcons, Scourge, and Soundwave alone would end up as either chewed up bits or molten slag." Jazz said somberly, shaking his head at the disturbing thought of any Transformer actually enjoying consuming another. It was not something he wanted to dwell on.

"Don't worry, Coby and everyone on board is doing their share in trying to repair Optimus." Hound said, giving the native Autobot a thumbs up and a cheerful smile. "He'll be up and at 'em soon enough."

Leobreaker wasn't familiar with Hound's 'up and adam' reference, but he did feel reassured by Hound's words. All three Autobots made their way back to the medical bay to see if they could offer any aid.

---

Meanwhile on board the Atlantis the Decepticons waited as Scourge promised to divulge the entirety of his plan to them. They had plenty of time to spare now that the Autobots would be working on repairing their forces and their ship.

"Now that all the pieces are in place I shall explain what my plan is." Scourge said turning to face his combined forces, "The Omega Lock and the Cyber Planet Keys, the Albonite crystals, The Matrix, they are what I will use to break the boundaries of time and space and bring our allies here regardless of how long ago they were terminated."

"Whoa whoa whoa..." Ransack interrupted, "What are you talking about? Are you sayin you wanna knock a hole in space and time so you can bring back the dead?"

Scourge gritted his teeth, as much as he wanted to scrap the little whelp then and there for stealing his moment he held his anger in check. "Yes, in a manner of speaking. I see few of you realize the scope of what I am planning."

Soundwave clicked a few buttons on the console and images of schematics of the ship and designs for the device appeared. "This ship has enough adequate technology that with a sufficient amount of modification the communication array could be used for our purposes. The purest crystals we have must be used to amplify and focus the power needed and the rest will be used to protect ourselves and the ship in case of an overload, there is no sense in dying just to bring back ungrateful allies."

"Then why'd you steal the Matrix?" Crumplezone said showing some mild initiative despite his plodding mind. "Wasn't that your whole plan?"

"And the algorithm, why'd you want us to steal that from the Decepticons of our world before coming here?" Cutthroat asked.

Scourge snorted, but inwardly he was enjoying making himself seem so in control. He knew these peons were too simple minded to put together such a controversial plan. It pleased him to see all of his Decepticons waiting to hear the rest of his plan with baited breath.

"The Matrix is connected to every Spark that has and ever will be. Although it has never been tried, I believe I can use the Matrix and the algorithm we stole to locate and extract them."

"This is theory of course." Soundwave spoke up. "The Matrix is not fully understood, and those who knew it best are now terminated."

"Wait, you mean you're going to take Sparks out of the Matrix?" Crumplezone asked, scratching the back of his head.

Scourge was irritated by Soundwave's indirect jab at his plans but would let it slide this once. After all he was correct and destroying him now would simply delay his plans even more. "Not exactly, the last step of my plan is we use the algorithm to scan the Matrix until we locate the Spark we desire. Using the Albonite crystals we will focus the power of the Omega Lock into a single point, cutting a hole in the fabric of time and simply draw the Transformer we want through the hole and into this reality. Imagine it, we can bring back Bludgeon, Cyclonus, Megatron, if we wanted we could even restore Thunderwing to life"

"I don't think we're THAT desperate." Rumble said, remembering how much damage that Matrix obsessed fanatic caused. He remembered that was perhaps the first time he was glad to hear the death of such a powerful Decepticon. By the hand of Unicron himself no less.

"Squawktalk, put in a heading to Velocitron. I want our first test to be near a suitable world for our first guest." Scourge ordered, keeping his channel to the condor-cassette mute so he wouldn't have to deal with the loudmouth translator.

"Do you have someone selected to wreck that world?" Sinnertwin asked, liking the idea of seeing more old friends.

"Oh yes," Scourge said. "five of them in fact."

---

In the medical bay of the Ogygia, Red Alert had just finished scanning the Autobots that had entered battle and had determined that aside from singed exo-plating from near hits from enemy fire the group was perfectly fine. On the question of the condition of Wingsaber and Hotshot the medic responded;

"Wingsaber and Hotshot aren't in any danger. Aside from a little damage to the joints in their arms and legs they're fine."

"How's Optimus?" Came a reply from nearly everyone, the question seemed especially loud coming from the children.

Red Alert sighed, he knew this was coming so he taken ample time while examining the other to prepare to deliver the news. "He's severely damaged, but he'll live. He won't be fighting Decepticons for a good long while though. It's a wonder how he's even sill online."

"Don't you guys have CR chambers? One of those would have him on his feet in a fraction of the time it would take to repair him by hand." Jazz asked, not certain why they wouldn't have done so if they had such standard devices. (3)

"CR chambers?" Lori mused, tilting her head.

"What's 'CR' stand for?" Coby asked.

"A Cryonic Regeneration Chamber repairs any Transformer that is shut inside by shutting down nearly every system in a Transformer and rerouting his or her own repair systems to focus more critically damaged areas while increasing the repair rate with advanced nanotech that makes the process all the faster." Hound explained. "If it weren't for those repair chambers we would have lost the war back on our Cybertron."

"I don't believe we have anything like that." Override said, but just to make sure she began to search through the old ship's systems to check if they indeed lacked that technology. "There is an Energon tank that is used to aid in recovery but I don't know how much energon we can use on him. I'm a racer not a medic."

"That's an interesting piece of technology, I hope to see it sometime Hound. But the Energon bath would be the fastest choice." Red Alert said, turning to Override. "Don't worry about the energon levels I'll take care of it. His Spark Core, like all Transformers is surrounded by strong metals that protect the Spark against attacks. While energon would instantly snuff his Spark upon contact we don't have to worry, if there was a hole in the core even a micron in size I'd know."

"So what we just toss him in there?" Leobreaker asked as he looked at the many parts that were loose on the table. He obviously didn't know how this worked even though he had been in these containers off and on since the war with the Decepticons began.

Red Alert shook his head. "No, Coby and I need to repair him just enough so that all of his parts will stay in place. If we do not at least do that Optimus will not be repaired quickly or correctly and we'll have to do a lot of the work ourselves regardless."

Jazz carefully picked Coby off the floor and set him on the table. He was a little worried that the human might fall off but remembered in all his years of seeing Sparkplug and Spike work on damaged Autobots he never saw them injure themselves.

"Okay guys, while these two grease monkeys are working on Optimus that means we need to get to work on the ship." Jazz said, using what leadership skills he had learned from his many years under Optimus Prime both before and after arriving on Earth.

The Autobots and Minicons quickly agreed and began to piece together the engines as best they could. Lori and Bud were left in the medical bay to hope for good news soon as Coby and Red Alert worked their hardest on Optimus Prime. Tension on the ship was high, all of the Autobots felt that their best warrior had been taken down with relative ease and were trying to be optimistic about his odds for recovery.

While the others worked Jazz had felt it right to inform Cybertron of the situation. After a few moments of studying the controls on the bridge he managed to patch a signal to Cybertron. Jetfire answered quickly and after a quick report of what had happened after the battle Jetfire held his forehead as if he had just been trying to hold his own with fueler bot in an energon drinking contest.

"Optimus is damaged? What else went wrong?" Jetfire said grudgingly, still holding his head. "Repairs are all done on this end, do you want me to send one of the other ships?"

"I wouldn't recommend it." Jazz said. "It'd be better if you put everyone on alert and keep an eye out for anything. There's no tellin' what these jokers are plannin'."

"Good idea. We'll be standing by incase you need us. Jetfire out." Jetfire was about to terminate the vidlink when he stopped. "By the way, have you seen the kids? They seem to have up and vanished off the face of the planet."

Jazz did nothing to hide his wide smile. "Those kids are here. Apparently they snuck on board in that Scrapmetal of Coby's. The human kids you guys hang around with in this universe are just as sneaky are they are in ours."

"Those kids have done a lot for us. It's surprising how much considering how small they are." Jetfire meant it. He found the children to be a blast to be around, they made a dire and potentially deadly situation an enjoyable adventure.

"I know what you mean. I've got to get back to work repairing the ship. Organize what you can and keep an eye on the other planets." Jazz warned. "We don't know what Scourge is planning to do, and keep that information about the Matrix being 'tolen-say'."

Jetfire nodded and terminated the link. This was not a good day to be left in charge.

---

Thunderblast opened her eyes and at the sight of herself as a transparent version of herself around what she could only imagine was her own Spark and the first thing that came to her mind was: "Am I offline?"

The landscape was not what she expected the inside of the Matrix to look like. She had expected there to be countless other Sparks around her and little else but a sense of absolution but she felt nothing of the sort. Instead she was confused, disoriented, and a little frightened although she would never admit to that even if she was offline for good.

The world around her was not devoid of matter, there were chucks of rock floating stationary in the gravityless environment. Thunderblast did not know if there was air here or not, she was totally without any of her hardware sensors. Still the sensation of moving was similar to space travel or moving through water only here she had only to think to change direction or stop. The area was illuminated by and unseen source with the calm and gentle light of a sunrise.

Curious about the lack of other Sparks, Thunderblast wandered about the rocks to search. For what exactly she was not sure, perhaps she was searching for answers to where she was or why she was offline. The last she remembered was that crazy Autobot pulling out her...

"Oh Primus I really am offline..." Thunderblast whispered, placing a hand her mouth. "But if I'm offline where is everyone?"

Out of the corner of her eyes Thunderblast spotted something, it wasn't colored the same as the rest of the rocks or shaped like them. Thunderblast traveled towards it to see what it was. Before her was a large flat surface, as it one of the rocks had been cut in half with a laser to show a neat clean cut. In the center was a Transformer sized version of a human device called a television set that was apparently on. Sitting in front of this device was someone Thunderblast knew very well.

Seething with rage at the sight of her apparent killer she launched her self at him, but found that no matter how loudly she called for her Cyber planet key it would not come to her, in fact her weapons did not seem to work either. She crept forward slowly, until she could see what that crazy Autobot was doing. There was the Autobot sitting on the ground watching that human device but he looked like he was literally only half there. His right wrist, parts of his chest, his left thigh, even one fourth of his head was absolutely nonexistent yet his hand and the rest of his leg seemed to function normally regardless of the lack of the rest of their respective limb. Thunderblast landed on the flat surface and approached him, expecting a hailstorm of laser fire or some other attack. She was met with no opposition. In fact the closer she got the more she could see that he two was a transparent 'spirit' around his Spark. The image in the television screen was, to Thunderblast's surprise, nothing but black and white static. How he could stare at that mess was beyond her understanding.

Without any indication that he had heard her, Thunderblast heard him say; "Help me..."

Thunderblast blinked at the sudden question. "Huh?"

"Help me..." He asked again, sounding as if he was on the verge of shutting down.

"Help you how? Why should I help you? You killed me!" She screamed, her voice echoing in the nothingness.

"No... Saved you..." The broken ghost of an Autobot rasped.

"Saved me? What in the Pit are you talking about? Look around you buddy we're dead!" She yelled, spinning around to emphasize her point.

"No... I pulled out your Spark core and integrated it into my systems..." Steelburst said, Thunderblast's proximity seemed to be affecting him somehow... "I need you... Help me..." (4)

Thunderblast let out a relived sigh, she was glad that she wasn't dead. The idea of being stuck in an Autobot's mainframe was highly unappealing but it was better than death. Besides this Autobot was pitifully asking for her help, and that presented an opportunity to bend him to her cause or better yet the Decepticon cause. "Wait, does this mean we've powerlinked or something?"

Steelburst stood and faced the femme Decepticon, a feat that could not happen in the physical realm since his thigh was missing. "No... my systems are adjusting itself so that it can support two sparks so we went into repair mode..."

"Why should I help you? You nearly slagged us both!" Thunderblast screamed, wishing that she had her rocket launcher more than ever.

"It doesn't matter... unless we are rescued we will not survive. If you do not help me then the Autobots will not bring your body with them. You may be trapped in with me for a long time." Steelburst said, acting more like he was awake and, for lack of a better word 'alive'.

Thunderblast gritted her teeth. While being a passenger for a while was tolerable as long as she would be able to vacate this Autobot's body in a short amount time. But being stuck with this insane Autobot as a room mate for rest of the "You will understand that this will be only until my body is repaired. After that I want to be back in my own hardware."

Steelburst nodded his agreement to her terms.

"So... what did you want me to do?" Thunderblast asked timidly, the situation was not what she was used to.

Steelburst simply took her hand and suddenly all was made clear.

---

The cassettes were working as hard as they could, but even their lack of size and physical strength made them more competent workers than Ransack and Crumplezone who had quickly been demoted to 'get this' 'get that' in the creation of the reality-time machine. Soundwave was heading the project while Scourge, Hun-grr, and Cutthroat watched the construction.

"Well Soundwave, what is our estimated time of completion?" Scourge asked.

"We will be ready to begin a test run of the device in a matter of ours. This ship is far more compatible with our plans than I had anticipated." Soundwave droned, immediately going back to his tasks of analyzing the ship's systems and figuring out the proper way to alter them to suit his needs.

"He could be down here helpin' ya know?" Rumble muttered quietly, knowing that while Megatron would have simply threatened him or kicked him Scourge would probably only warn him once in his stint under the Unicron-constructed Scourge.

Ransack snorted his approval of the cassette's attitude towards Scourge but remained silent. Carrying a major system power node was something that required a lot of his attention.

Scourge's outward scowl at his comrades hid the pleasant ideas of what would come once all was ready. The idea of seeing the Speed planet under attack by some old friends would be a very entertaining venture...

To be continued.

AN: I know the ending on this chapter isn't the norm, but I had to cut part of it to the next chapter. I wanted to get a new chapter up as soon as possible. And no I do not intend on turning Thunderblast into an Autobot. You'll see what's going on with her.

(1) OK, basically this is a metal sphere that protects a Transformer's spark, kinda like how our hard skull protects our puny fleshling brains.

(2) okay this was ripped directly from the beast wars episode: "Dark Voyage" where Optimus Primal radios his comrade's condition as 'code X.' I also remember Cheetor reporting another situation as 'code R' in and other episode.

(3) Seriously, we never see CR chambers in Cybertron. We saw one in Energon (or was that an Energon bath?) but I'm keeping Cybertron separate from Energon and Armada. The american version says it is (and hints at it being so with the images of the kids from the other series) but the Japanese version says it's a stand alone. Besides if it was a continuation then why didn't anyone remember the transformers from Energon and where'd all the advanced tech go? Seriously confusing... -.-;

(4) Okay... I know Optimus Primal did this in beast wars and became Optimal Optimus Primal but I didn't want this to happen to these two, the idea of this happening between a male and female transformer's sparks would be too... confusing... o.o

SpartanCommander - Right on the money on Scourge. You guessed it right. -gives you small cash prize- However in regards to the Matrix: I remember something coming up in Seibertron's forums saying that Unicron could never fight himself because he is one entity stretched across all transformers realities. If that is applied to Primus as well, could the matrix's be connected as well? Lastly the Minicons vs. the cassettes idea I think I will use. Good idea man. I remembered that I wanted that to happen in Armada so bad. Also you forgot the G1 episode where Scourge took the matrix and kicked the tar out of Galvatron (suddenly the ep of BW where Terrorsaur does the same to Megs rings true to the series). Although I have a question for you: did G2 Starscream ever become separated from Warworld?

OptimusxElita4ever- I'm not really looking for the DVDs, I'd be only interested in season 2 anyway. I've had the movie since 86. (VHS and later DVD). Nothing compares to the G1 movie even though they've tried.

GrimlockX4- Thanks for the praise dude, hope you enjoyed this chapter.


	12. The plot thickens

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 12

Coby and Red Alert had managed to piece most of Optimus's body back together enough for the energon bath to take effect however they needed one thing: enough strong bots to carefully carry him into the chamber without shaking all of their hard work to bits. They would have done it themselves but Coby's Scrapmetal was not capable of such delicate work nor was it strong enough to carry half of Optimus's weight. Without any other options the two mechanics began to work on Wingsaber and Hotshot's joints. The two Autobots had already reawakened from stasis lock and were on their feet in no time. Only then was Optimus in the energon bath and on his way to recovery.

The others were hard at work both inside and out repairing the damage to the engines. They had managed to stem the leak of energon and various other fluids that are used in the ancient ship and so far had only managed to reinforce the hull around the damaged engines so that they wouldn't shake themselves to pieces when they started them up again. While the larger bots were repairing the structural damage, the Mini-cons were busy with the more delicate precision work with the engine's software. Repairs to began on the engines were going steadily but there was little conversation. The spirit in the engine room was focused on the task at hand so they didn't have to ask the obvious question: Was Optimus going to be okay?

In the medical bay Red Alert was addressing Wingsaber and Hotshot on the situation. "Hotshot, do you think you can assist the others in repairing the engines and getting main weapons back online? We're going to need them when we start tracking Scourge down."

"Not a problem." Hotshot said with his usual cocky energy and went on his way.

Wingsaber looked at Red Alert with a neutral expression. He could tell that Red Alert had something for him to do but had no idea what, though he could guess that he wouldn't like it all.

"Wingsaber," Red Alert began. "I think it would be a good idea if you were to go down to the planet and see if you can tell what those Decepticons were up to."

Wingsaber hated being right. Without a warp gate or shuttle getting off the surface with a passenger was going to be tough. "Well alright, you sure Optimus is going to be okay?"

"I'm the only one with any medical expertise so I'm staying here to ensure that he recovers quickly." Red Alert assured, "I suggest you hurry and go, the others will have the engines running in no time."

Wingsaber said nothing, a little annoyed that he got the recon job but he knew this kept him from having to do manual labor. Regardless of not knowing if he could call this a victory or not Wingsaber made his way to the airlock.

---

Steelburst was sitting on the rocks, a small pile of crystals at his feet and holes in his chassis where he had actively dug into his own body to tear out the energy draining crystals. With only one arm he could only do so much and at present; even though he had managed to reroute his missing arm's generated power to other sections of his body he could still see his energon levels dropping little by little. He estimated he had only a matter of hours, days maybe if he put himself into stasis lock. But if he did that he would have no way to signal his allies if he was out of action.

Absently he laid back on the bare rock and put his face plate back on, there was nothing for him to do so he saw no need to expend excess energy. Turning his head he could see Thunderblast's lifeless body laying in the same dignified position he had laid her in after he had consumed the energon from her fuel tanks and taken a few parts from her body to repair his own. He was no master mechanic, but Steelburst knew how to reroute a his own power lines so the energy wasn't being wasted.

Steelburst's self diagnosis systems kicked in, having finished their job and listed what was wrong with him. Among the lesser damage, his transformation cog (1) was cracked and Steelburst was now without his jet mode. If he had been in jet mode when he had hit the ground he would have been totally unable to move since his thrusters were slagged.

Steelburst was just starting to think about entering stasis lock when he noticed something was entering the atmosphere. It was possible it was just debris from the battle, but it was clear that it was too small to be the Atlantis or the Ogygia crashing down to the planet and it's decent was too controlled and constant... What could it be?

Wingsaber was glowing with heat by the time he had landed on the abandoned mining world. The atmosphere was sparse compared to Earth's but the friction of reentry was enough to overload his coolant systems. The large discarded crystals laying on the ground imminently began to pull the thermal energy straight from his metallic body even though he was standing a short distance away. There was little to see, there was a site where the Atlantis had taken off, broken and whole crystals laying on the ground, discarded mining equipment... it was clear what had happened. The Decepticons had taken some crystals and were about to leave before the battle began.

Wingsaber sighed, this was without a doubt the shortest assignment he had ever had. He was about to take off when he noticed another crater not far from where he stood. Walking over to the impact crater he saw a black and green arm, and twisted bits of purple and yellow metal.

'Did they survive and tear each other apart or what?' Wingsaber wondered as he followed a trail, obviously two transformers crawling away from the impact crater to occasionally struggle. It wasn't until he looked up that he saw Steelburst, heavily damaged and covered in bits of crystals. Laying on the ground was a familiar and very lifeless femme Decepticon.

Advancing slowly, unsure if Steelburst was indeed alive and not just a propped up chassis. The kids had shown him a few too many of those horror movies... "Steelburst? You okay buddy?"

"My energon levels are at thirty two percent, I have received extensive damage to my left visual optic, and my left arm has been torn from its socket." Steelburst's tone was exactly the opposite compared to what Wingsaber had seen earlier. It was cold and filled with unfocused contempt. "I am unable to transform, can you carry me back to the ship?"

Wingsaber shrugged. "Uh... I think I can but I don't think it won't be easy. This planet has decent gravity even though it's a small one."

"Wasn't there a shuttle you could have taken on the Atlantis?" Steelburst asked, going over to collect his disembodied arm.

Wingsaber flinched, he didn't know if the Atlantis had a shuttlecraft on the old ship or not. Perhaps he should have checked first because if there was he could get another boring lecture from Optimus or Red Alert about his 'impatience.'

"I ask because we are taking Thunderblast's chassis with us." Steelburst stared hard at Wingsaber with his one remaining optic, looking every scary even though he was holding his arm and could go into stasis lock any second.

"Wha? Why would you want to bring a Sparkless shell?" Wingsaber was known for doing reckless things but this bordered on just plain random.

Steelburst remained adamant in his decision. "She helped me, so I will do the same."

That confused Wingsaber further. Why would a Decepticon help an Autobot? "Why would she-"

Steelburst reached into the lifeless femme and held up the dry energon pump. "If not for her I wouldn't be functioning as well as I am."

Wingsaber was a little disgusted. The idea of ripping out another Transformer's fuel lines to refuel was not only unheard of but had to be one of the most brutal of survival techniques. Wingsaber knew this was defiantly not a good day to be a team player.

---

The Atlantis's lights were slowly coming back on as the generator was recovering from the recent trial run of the machine. While the device had worked perfectly and created a large hole in time and space, nothing had been extracted.

"What went wrong Soundwave?" Scourge asked from his spot behind the Albonite barrier that had been set up. "I was attempting to extract the Stunticons and nothing happens when the device was activated. I do not like being wrong Soundwave."

Soundwave tapped his face plate and typed on the computer console, quickly checking the device for structural errors but found nothing wrong. "Unknown, the device is functioning with optimum efficiency... Could it be possible that using this reality's Matrix has limited us to this reality's well of Sparks?"

"If that's the case then can't you bring back Megatron so we can finish off the Autobots?" Ransack inquired.

Scourge ignored the Velocitron combed his beard with his claws as he thought. Things had been going so well... Still he had to shift the focus off him and make the others know he would not take mistakes lightly. "Why didn't you inform me of this before you monotone pile of tin?"

"It was an unknown factor." Soundwave defended himself. "This has never been attempted before."

"Well then, I suggest we work fast to correct this problem..." Scourge half threatened as he glared at his lieutenant, still holding up the air that he was willing, eager, even willing to destroy Soundwave for his error. "Would it be possible to use the device and the Matrix we acquired from that sad excuse of an Autobot commander to open a breach in the dimensions and connect the two Matrices? Giving us free range over two different selections of Sparks?"

"Hmmm... Possibly yes." Soundwave nodded his head. "But there is a strong possibility that Optimus Prime may sense our intrusion."

"Who cares if he does, there's no way he can locate us here." Scourge was a little irritated that Soundwave was opposing him, granted it wasn't major insubordination but Scourge was growing tired of these minor setbacks. "Just find a way to get it done."

Meanwhile Ransack and Crumplezone were dizzy from trying to figure out what Scourge and Soundwave were talking about. Neither one of them exactly had genius grade processors in their cranial chambers if you catch my drift.

Soundwave kept his contempt for the Sweep leader in check as he began to type in a new command for the computer and the machine began to hum to life again...

---

The Constructicons had managed to recreate the solar collector exactly thanks to Perceptor and Scrapper's combined engineering expertise. Both Commanders stood not far, waiting for any updates on the situation.

"We've managed to faithfully recreate the 'solar collector' thanks to the plans we discovered in Wheeljack's old lab." Perceptor said. "However I do not know how it was activated."

Optimus nodded. "Good work Perceptor."

"Why was this device built as a solar collector if you could deduce that it was so easily?" Megatron said, giving the Autobot scientist a scathing glare.

The microscope Transformer wished that he could have been anywhere else at that moment. Even in the racing center talking to Blur... "I can only surmise that whoever built this device didn't know its true purpose."

Megatron's scowl only deepened. "Then its construction was either a circumstancal accident, or someone replaced the proper plans with the ones that created this... device."

While Megatron had been chewing out the Perceptor, Optimus had been feeling his core temperature steadily rising. Until finally he could no longer stand the pain that shot though his body and crumpled to the ground, a red light emanating from the interior of his chest.

"Prime, is something the matter?" Megatron asked with a small amount of satisfaction at seeing his old nemesis turned ally double over in agony.

"I... am not certain! The Matrix... it's like it's about to overload!" Optimus groaned, opening his chest compartment and let the life giving artifact to fall out of his body and onto the ground.

All Transformers near the two commanders looked over to see what had caused Optimus to collapse. Regardless of their faction they were all stunned to see that Prime had been in enough pain to essentially eject the Matrix from his body. The Matrix itself was no longer its peaceful blue glowing self, it was emitting heat and red light like a fusion reactor and was actually smoking in the cool Cybertronian air.

Optimus stared as the Matrix hummed and smoked for a few more moments before returning to its normal blue state. "Whatever just happened it does not bode well for us Megatron..."

"I hate to be the bearer of bad news sirs..." Perceptor interjected, timidly walking towards both Autobot and Decepticon Commanders. "I just received word from Ironhide on our prison station. The Stunticons are no longer in their cells and there are no signs of escape."

Megatron looked down at the Matrix, then at Perceptor. "You WILL recreate the events that took place here. I do not like the idea of Scourge having this kind of power."

---

To be continued.

(1) taken from the G1 series, the Five faces of Darkness. This is supposedly what allows a TF to transform. I know this is probably phased out by now but I don't know what it would be otherwise. The cog they used to allow Metroplex to transform looked like a large metal orb.

SpartanCommander - Now THAT's informative. Thanks dude! Now I know if I could bring G1 Screamer into this. As for your PM about Unicron not being a god, it's just how I heard it and it's open for interpretation. I think a 'higher being' could possibly be considered a god. As for there being one omnipotent Unicron that is basically stretched throughout realities, it's a theory that's argued in the Seiberton fantasy battle forums. It was argued that G1 comic Unicron could take Armada's version but it was narrowed down to whether or not they are actually separate entities. Don't worry I think I figured out a decent alternative for the Matrix problem. ugh... who thought a fic would involve such complicated conversations?

GrimlockX4 - Awesome review for chapter 11. Hope you liked chapter 12.

Tigerprime - Thanks, I'm glad you liked my OC saving Thunderblast. I was hoping that wouldn't seem hallow for me making my OC become involved with femme Decepticon. and I'm pleased you figured out it was the Stunticons I wanted to bring. When I first saw Speed planet in the show I thought; "Wow the Stunticons would tear that place up."

OptimusxElita4ever - The 07 movie felt more like a movie guest starring the transformers with lots of product placement and human characters that we really didn't want to see. That and Jazz died after only getting like 3 lines... out of the 1st season transformers Jazz was my favorite Autobot. As for the plushie: yes sir my tiny stuffed commander, new chapter up soon! However I am looking at Beast wars DVDs... only 16 bucks online... YAY. I just saw a complete G1 series though, 488 bucks... o.o


	13. Good news, Bad news

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

AN: BEFORE we begin I'd like to say I'm sorry for the long delay. What with Gift Day (called Christmas by some) and family and my co-op comics I've been stretched pretty thin. So as compensation enjoy this longer than usual chapter. ENJOY!

Broken boundaries

Part 13

"Woo-hoo! Yeah look at 'em all! Listen to 'em smash! Ya-ha!" Wildrider screamed as he drove down Velocitron's speedways, slamming into the side of the confused Velocitron Transformers as he sped by them.

Motormaster was pleased with the deal Scourge had made with them for their freedom from the Autobot's prison. The idea of helping Scourge in exchange for control of this entire planet was a very sweet deal. These wimpy Velocitron Transformers were hardly a problem for him as he traveled up the wrong way of the adjacent roadway, ramming head on into oncoming cars and other vehicles and barreling on as if they were nothing.

Breakdown was on the other side of the road way speeding right behind Wildrider. As many of the Velocitron Transformers had reverted to their robot modes they stared as the mad man who just ran them off the road and into the railing continue on. However in Breakdown's twisted paranoia driven mind he thought they were staring at him as he passed. With a loud "Stop staring at me!" Breakdown let loose a powerful high pitch vibration blast from his engine that caused his on lookers to fall prey to mechanical failures and severe glitches.

Dragstrip had recently offered to race anyone who would take him on, of course he never mentioned to anyone that he had secretly mined the road and could detonate them all with a single signal from his comm. channels. Most Transformers would see winning under those circumstances as utterly hollow but to the yellow dragster winning was all that mattered.

Dead End was bringing up the rear, not yelling or smashing into things like his comrades. He was eyeing the edge of the road, knowing that a fall from this elevated speed way could do some serious damage but probably wouldn't kill him. Not that he really cared, all Transformers were just food for rust after all. Besides blindsiding these speed obsessed Transformers would ruin his finish and he'd have to spend all day repairing dents and scratches in his chassis. When he did die Dead End wanted to leave an attractive wreck.

---

The Stunticons were fitting in quite well on this world, or so Scourge thought so. The promise of ruling this entire planet was as sweet as freshly processed energon to the Stunticons. It was pleasing to see that they had not changed in all the time he had been gone from the Decepticon ranks.

Crumplezone and Ransack were in awe of the destruction this team of Decepticons was causing and they were just out for a leisurely drive. Even together the two troublemakers had never caused that many wrecks in that short a time.

Soundwave however was far more direct with what was on his mind. "Scourge, The Stunticons were still functioning when we brought them here. Should we try to bring a team who has been offline for some time?"

"Did you have someone in mind?" Scourge asked, slightly curious who the monotone schemer would want to revive.

"The Insecticons."

"What? Why would I want to bring those treacherous insects back?" Scourge shot, completely in the dark on why Soundwave chose THEM.

"They would follow you if you promised them Earth." Soundwave said flatly, he had apparently thought things out very thoroughly. "The are capable of devouring organic matter and transforming it into useable fuel. Bombshell would be able to control the entire planet by himself if they had no opposition from the Autobots."

The idea brought a look of contemplation to the Sweep leader's face. The idea of having lieutenants in control of other worlds while he controlled Cybertron was an intriguing idea. Besides he could just destroy them if they betrayed him.

"Very well. Prepare the machine Soundwave." Scourge ordered.

---

Wingsaber lugged Thunderblast's lifeless shell through the ship's halls with the damaged Steelburst limping behind him. Steelburst had been adamant about bringing the Decepticon Femme's corpse along and Wingsaber decided that no one would ever know of how a barely functioning, one armed Autobot had forced him to do what he wanted. As Wingsaber, with Thunderblast in tow, and Steelburst entered the medical bay, they were greeted by Red Alert, who also happened to be hosting the children from Earth.

"Welcome back guys." Lori shouted from her spot on the floor near the main computer terminal. Her enthusiasm earned her a tired smile from Wingsaber.

"Hey Lori, how's Optimus?" The young Autobot asked, laying Thunderblast's chassis on one of the medical tables.

Lori noticed the obvious oddity of Wingsaber helping Thunderblast but thought it would be polite to answer before prying into what had happened. However she didn't ask as gasped when she saw Steelburst limp into the room carrying his own arm.

"Whoa... Steelburst you look like you just went ten rounds with Megatron..." Bud said as Steelburst shambled past him without even a glance. Bud only reasoned that he couldn't because he had only one eye.

Red Alert blinked at the Decepticon who had been laid on the examination table. No reason he could think of could justify having a off line Decepticon in the same room as Optimus Prime. "What are you two thinking? If she were to wake up she could do considerable damage to the ship and possibly slag Optimus-"

"Hey don't point a finger at me." Wingsaber said, "Steelburst made me bring this crazy chick with us."

"There's no chance she could wake up, she's just a Sparkless shell." Steelburst strained to say, clearly in pain. "Now hurry up and fix me..."

Lori was on the fence about this... She and the other children could see that some change had come over Steelburst. Until recently he had been unstable and mopey, now he seemed short tempered and demanding. Lori definitely thought that bringing Thunderblast's body back was unusual even for Steelburst.

Red Alert was less than happy to have a Decepticon in his medical bay but he had something to do that was kinda important. Repairing Steelburst. "Okay fine... Coby get your tools, we need to get Steelburst back in working order."

Red Alert helped the green and black jet onto another examination table and began to refuel his patient from the supply kept in the medical bay. After shutting down Steelburst and putting him into repair mode Red Alert helped Coby onto the table and they began their repairs.

Hound soon came into the medical bay with a tired smile, "The engines are repaired and so is the hull. Weapon systems are still offline though."

"Thanks for keeping us informed." Red Alert said to his otherworldly comrade, beginning his scans on Steelburst. "Say, Hound, is there a version of me in your reality?"

Hound froze. Remembering Grimlock's planned a raid on Jhiaxus's ship Twilight against Optimus Prime's orders to strike a morale-raising blow against the Cybertronian empire. Unfortunately, Jhiaxus had expected this move and had Grimlock's troops surrounded once the Autobots had boarded the Twilight. Red Alert attacked Jhiaxus anyway in a gesture of defiance, and was gunned down by Jhiaxus's troops. The question was which was the right thing to do? Should he be honest and tell Red Alert that his twin was dead? Lying about it would make no difference, since it wasn't like it could really harm their current friendship.

"Uh, yeah... there was." Hound said. "The second gen Cybertronians terminated him. We lost a lot of friends against them."

"Second gen?" Lori blinked. "You mean 'second generation'?"

"Yes, they are Transformers that have taken our natural evolution too far and have distilled themselves morally and emotionally." Hound explained calmly. "They believe that all non-Transformer life is meaningless and are transforming planets into copies of Cybertron, destroying any civilization that might already be there. Both Autobot and Decepticon forces are now working together to fight back, and we've even taken down their Liege Centuro, Jhiaxus."

"Cool, so you guys took down their leader?" Bud asked, imagining some huge black robot with horns and could transform into a giant tank-jet-dragon thing.

"No. Even though Jhiaxus was destroyed we still find second generation Cybertronian warships. We don't know who their true leader is... all we know is that something called The Liege Maximo has something to do with it. But we're not sure if the Liege Maximo is a place or a person."

Red Alert looked up from his work on Steelburst. "What do you mean by 'natural evolution'?"

"It's complicated." Hound said, wanting to get off the subject. "Let's just leave it at that. If you were to attempt to find out the same thing that's happening in our universe could occur here."

Red Alert understood Hound's uncomfortable subject and wisely decided to talk about something else. "Well, Optimus's condition is stable, and with time he should make a full recovery."

"Good. I cannot speak from experience but your Optimus seems as capable a leader and as courageous as ours." Hound said, noting the smiles on the human children's faces. An image he saved to look at later if he ever felt 'blue' as Jazz would say. "When you've finished repairs on Steelburst come to the bridge, Jazz wants everyone ready for a conference with Cybertron and the other planets."

Red Alert shook his head. Who died and left Jazz in charge? The medic filed his complaint away and went back to work on Steelburst. Coby meanwhile only sighed and went back to work, this was all quickly becoming too weird to even him.

---

"We've been waiting patiently... how much longer? Longer..." Shrapnel groaned, tapping his foot as he, Kickback, and Bombshell stood in the cargo bay. Scourge had restricted the large insect Transformers to the same room to observe them. He needed to know if they were going to silently plot among themselves or opening embrace the offer he was going to give them. He also wanted to distance himself from them for a while, he did not want to mistake them for his loyal Sweep warriors.

Collectively these three Decepticons were known as the Insecticons, highly independent and considered loose cannons by most. In the past they were bodyguards for Straxus, the Decepticon Overlord of a sector called Polyhex. On Earth they had learned how to extract energon from organic life and metals. They were in a constant on and off relationship to Megatron, and regarded as a high level threat to either side. Until aiding in the assault on Metroplex all three were heavily damaged and thrown into space after the Decepticons retreated along with Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Megatron.

These three were pulled out of their timeline before the blitz on the uncompleted Metroplex, and thus Scourge when created he also ended up with the three Decepticons that would later become his Sweeps. (1)

"So what do you call this device Scourge?" Bombshell asked, seeming a little too interested in the machine for Soundwave's taste.

"I suppose it could be called a temporal displacement device." Soundwave said. "Not entirely accurate but it will suffice adequately."

Kickback was only half listening, he was checking to see if he could actually start eating the ship. Insecticon need to eat.

Shrapnel turned to Soundwave. Looking a little annoyed that they were being kept waiting. "Well Soundwave, you say we've been brought into the future. Well, all I see are you and those useless cassettes. Cassettes."

Soundwave's red visor glinted hotly as he seemed to glare at Shrapnel, finding his new comrades to be as annoyingly smug as they were. Perhaps time had rusted his memory of them, making them seem more likable but now he remembered how much he hated them. Truth be told, from one backstabbing Decepticon soldier to another, the Insecticons didn't trust Soundwave either.

Scourge felt that now was as good a time as any to introduce himself to his new followers. Scourge closed the open comm. signal Soundwave was sending to the ship's main bridge and deactivated the viewscreen he had been using to keep a close eye on the Insecticons and headed to the cargo bay. Of all three of them Scourge wanted a close eye kept on Bombshell. His Cerebro shells were a great asset in the right hands, but in Bombshell's hands they could be used against both friend and foe alike to garner mindless servants for the Insecticons.

While Scourge left to meet with his new soldiers, Fracas felt annoyed that he was left on the bridge. While Fracas could easily destroy Scourge with a shot to the back, as much as he hated to admit it he knew that he was no match for all of these Decepticons if they converged on him at once. Scourge may have rescued him from death at the hands of Shockwave when they attempted to reclaim Cyclonus's remains from the then insane city commander but Fracas still disliked being left here to observe what was going on down in the cargo room while keep an eye on the communication systems. The Stunticons were still on the surface of Velocitron and would soon have to be picked up.

Meanwhile down in the cargo bay Scourge had arrived to deliver his proposition to the mercenary Decepticons. As the doors opened all optics turned to see Scourge coming into the cargo bay the Sweep commander crossed his arms, tapping his claws on his upper arms.

"Greetings my comrades. I assume that Soundwave has brought you up to speed on our situation." Scourge was using an old tactic he had noticed Decepticon leaders and sub commanders often used, shifting your subordinate's hostility towards someone who seem like they deserve it.

"Well 'Scourge,' we were told you had some sort of deal you wanted to make with us. We didn't need a history lesson, we just want to grab a bite." Kickback said, gnashing his teeth together as he looked at Soundwave.

Soundwave personally would have preferred taking his chances with the Terrorcons at this point. "I will go to the bridge and get a report from the Stunticons."

Scourge made no complaint and waited for the tape deck robot to have disappeared behind him to continue. "My offer is simple; help us defeat the remaining Autobots of this dimension and I will give you Earth to do with as you wish."

"Earth? What would we want with that mudball? mudball..." Shrapnel scoffed, wanting little to do with the fleshlings.

"With your powers of 'persuasion' you could have the fleshlings doing whatever you wanted. Including all of Earth's resources for yourself. That's a lot of renewable energy, and a lot of potential slaves." Scourge smirked, he knew how much these Decepticon enjoyed manipulating others and consuming energon.

"That is tempting." Bombshell chimed, thinking of the experiments he could perform on the humans. "But what worries me is how you plan to accomplish defeating all the Autobots with just a few handfuls of Decepticons?"

"I have my ideas Bombshell. Do not worry." Scourge said. "Make yourselves at home. This ship may be as old as the Ark and the Nemesis from our dimension but it is impressive. There are some native Decepticons on board but I don't care about what becomes of them. The next time we encounter resistance, I would like you to ensure that they get into a... disastrous situation."

"Sounds like fun." Kickback said with a wicked grin. "Count me in."

Bombshell and Shrapnel readily agreed to follow Scourge, who in turn allowed the Insecticons to travel to the Speed planet to eat their fill from the planet before they had to locate and extract the Stunticons.

---

The Autobots had gathered on the bridge of the Velocitron ship to discuss what was to be done next. The video screen showed the respective leaders of Jungle Planet and Gigantion, as well as Jetfire and Colonel Franklin.

"Jetfire has informed me that the children are with you." Colonel Franklin said, rubbing his temples. "I guess you'll stick with the story that they snuck on board with no prior knowledge from you right?"

"Pretty much." Hotshot said. "Sorry about that sir but we'll have them back home once we get back to Cybertron. "

"Aye, those children are tricky." Metroplex nodded. "And what of ya out there? Ya say these Decepticons gave your ship a thrashing?"

"Yeah they did just before they took off." Leobreaker said as he sharpened the blade on the end of his tail-whip. "Steelburst managed to take out that annoying Thunderblast, but Scourge and that combiner monster Abominus gave Optimus a thrashing that even Megatron never could have."

"I remember my scuffle with that Abominus, I wouldn't have thought that oaf could brought down Optimus Prime."

Scourge snorted as his face contorted into a small grin, obviously enjoying hearing that Prime had been humiliated in battle.

Red Alert stood up to deliver his side of the news. "As I'm sure Hound has informed some of you, Optimus is out of the red area and is making a quick recovery thanks to the energon bath. However I can't give you a definite answer as to when he will become conscious, it could be within hours or days."

"Days we may not have." Scourge, the leader of Jungle planet said with folded arms and dire expression. "Whatever my namesake plans will undoubtedly be devastating."

Jazz nodded, readily agreeing with the two headed dragon. "There's no question about Scourge's intent, any by Scourge I mean our favorite blue despot... If I had to guess he's hunkered down somewhere and he's preparing for a strike on Cybertron."

"Well if you ask my opinion-" Red Alert would have gone on but was interrupted by an emergency transmission coming in on the auxiliary viewscreen. "Hold on... it's from Velocitron, must be for you Override."

The female planet leader walked over to the screen and opened the channel, unfamiliar to seeing the level of destruction she had seen with her time with the Autobots on her home world's speedways. The roads were littered with broken and offline Velocitron Transformers.

"Three guesses who could have done this." Hotshot sneered, disgusted by the brutality he could see looking over Override's shoulder.

"That Scourge... I'm going to tear him a new tailpipe!" Override snarled, clenching her fist in anger and imagining the pain she would inflict on Scourge. Thoughts that would make even the Jungle planet leader squirm.

Hound leaned in, looking at the picture closely to see more details. "I don't think it was Scourge Override."

"What do you mean?" Override sputtered, "Who else could have committed such acts against my people!?"

"Look closer." The Autobot scout tapped the screen. "There's no residual plasma scaring, no explosion marks, if I had to say so these 'bots were crushed and battered into their current state. Definitely not Scourge's style, and beyond his power to do so."

"Then who-"

Override got her answer as a large black semi truck pulled into view and smashed through the wreckage, scattering parts and lifeless bodies about like dry leaves. In it's wake drove a yellow dragster, and three cars. All of whom cheered as they ran over and broad sided the lifeless Velocitron robots.

"Stunticons..." Jazz snorted. "Well ain't that just Prime."

---

"Are you sure about this Ransack?" Crumplezone asked, not liking the idea that they were sneaking around the ship towards the cargo bay where the Temporal displacement device was stored. Scourge was currently showing the Insecticons their opposition in this reality, namely the Autobots and their allies. Now was the perfect time to act, or so Ransack thought so.

"Yeah I'm sure Crumplezone." The smaller Decepticon said. "I don't think big, blue, and ugly ever planned on bringin' the big guy back."

Crumplezone scratched his head. "But Scourge said-"

"Yeah well Scourge says lotta stuff." Thundercracker snorted, as he began to look over the controls. "Time to figure out how this do-hicky works..."

While Thundercracker began to press buttons, Ransack and Crumplezone looked over the many cables and parts of the device, checking to see if it was left operational. Ransack, being his usual energetic self tripped over some wires that were plugged into the control panel on the side facing the wall of the cargo bay.

"You okay over there Ransack?" Crumplezone said with some sense of concern for his partner in crime.

"Yeah, I just tripped... I'm okay." Ransack hadn't seen what wires went where, and not thinking that it made a difference, plugged them back in at random. As long as the machine worked it didn't matter, right?

"I think I figured it out guys, here we go..." Thundercracker said, pressing a few more buttons. In all honesty in had no clue how Soundwave operated this thing but he'd give it his best. Hitting more buttons caused the device to hum with power as the Omega Lock began to send it's energies into the focusing crystals. The Matrix taken from Optimus Prime was pierced by light, and a large ball of light appeared on the other side of the Temporal Displacement machine.

"Thundercracker! Did you set the thingy to 'Megatron'?" Crumplezone asked, thinking the complex machine was as simple as a light switch or a water fountain.

"I dunno, I just kinda hit buttons." Thundercracker admitted, starting at the crackling ball of light that was quickly showing a visible form within it's folds. "I hope whatever's in that there light is friendly..."

It took only minutes for the blinding light to dissipate totally, but there standing in the middle of a ring shaped scorch mark was Megatron, their Megatron. Wearing the armor of Unicron and looking slightly confused but just as strong as ever.

"Welcome back Megatron!" Ransack said, rushing over to grovel before the time displaced Megatron.

"What he said!" Crumplezone bowed, mimicking Ransack's blubbering.

Thundercracker wiped his optics, nearly speechless to see his old leader back. Almost. "Heya boss!"

"It's good to be back... Apparently" Megatron said, raising an 'eyebrow' as he stepped by them looking around at the machine and the cargo bay. "I think it's time you two caught me up on current events."

Ransack and Crumplezone wasted no time in explaining everything, not even omitting the part where he as Galvatron acquired the power of the Omega lock and turned on the Decepticons. Megatron listened intently, already formulating a plan to deal with this other 'Scourge' who has taken his command. None of the Decepticons noticed that Buzzsaw was sitting silently above them in the air duct, recording everything he heard and saw.

To be continued.

AN: well I got the entire G2 comic series in paper back and all of Beast wars on DVD for christmas... I am a happy TF fan right now. :D

(1) I'm kinda taking this some the 84 movie obviously, but I'm ignoring the controversy over who became what in the sequence where Unicron reformats the Cons. In my opinion, Skywarp and Thundercracker became Cyclonus Scourge while the Insecticons became the Sweeps hence we see more than 2 of them. (Also COMPLETELY ignoring the 'Armada' clone of Cyclonus that disappears in the '84 Transformers movie.)

GrimlockX4 - Glad you like 'em because they're going to be tearing around the Speed planet. I have ideas for the other worlds too...

SpartanCommander - I agree, but I've got some more ideas about how Scourge would handle things. I can't say too much here. We will be seeing plenty of old friends and foes. BTW, I just kinda noticed while writing for Dead end that he is a lot like Sunstreaker in personality.


	14. Velocitron blues

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 14

"Well?" Megatron asked impatiently, "When are we going to find and turn that traitor into a mound of Slag?"

"Soon commander Megatron." Scrapper said, saluting. "We have locked onto the energy signal that Scourge is supposedly using for whatever he's planning. The next time that energy signal appears, the device will trigger and we shall My Constructicons as well as Onslught's Combaticons are ready to depart."

The Decepticon commander nodded, his soldiers could have done this on their own but having the Autobots around meant that he had extra (and expendable) resources. And extra resources were always valuable.

"Tell both teams to not let their guard down. This 'energy collector' could activate at anytime. I want to be ready when it does." Megatron said, emphasizing that he did not want to be disappointed or far worse, angered by what he considered sloppy work.

Scrapper saluted and raced back to his combiner team. Obviously to inform them first about Megatron's orders. On the other side of the device Optimus Prime was giving his own strike team orders. He had assembled some of his own warriors, ones he thought could handle this threat. Grimlock, second in command of the Autobots and leader of the Dinobots stood next to Springer, Kup, and Perceptor.

"Well Prime, you think this is a really good idea? I mean we'll be outnumbered two to one if we allow Megatron to bring along those two combiner teams." Kup spoke for the group that had assembled to follow Optimus, "If Megatron decides to break his agreement with us in this other world then we'll be scrap."

"Or he could just destroy the device once we're through and trap us wherever it sent Jazz and Hound with Scourge." Kup pointed out. Out of the entire group Kup had the hardest time accepting Decepticon help. Perhaps it was his age and all the friends he had lost over the ages but he still disliked Megatron. However he did his best not to ruin the truce that Optimus had tried so hard to accomplish.

"I don't think he would do something like that Kup." Optimus said with more confidence than he really had. "Megatron would prefer to fight us when he doesn't need us anymore. Moreover I don't believe that Megatron would want it to end with him stranding us in another reality. He would want a better sense of finality than that. We will allow Megatron his two combiner teams because we will be going after two combiner teams."

"Yeah, Abominus and Menasor together won't be a picnic unless we had some major fire power." Springer said, he had helped to bring the Stunticons in, he was not eager to give a repeat performance.

Optimus turned to face the device, with his Autobots at the ready behind them. "Well, for now we just have to be patient and wait for another energy spark from this other world. Whatever Scourge has planned it is effecting the Matrix, and whatever is happening it cannot be good. I hope you are ready, because there's no telling what we'll find."

Perceptor shook his head, Optimus was taking a big risk letting Megatron spearhead this little adventure and heading into a dimension where anything could encounter them. The Autobot scientist did not like where this was headed.

---

The Velocitron ship was headed at maximum velocity towards the Speed planet but even the knowledge of it being only an hour's travel from their past drifting position did not ease Override's nerves. The sooner she was on Velocitron to brave whatever these Stunticons could throw at her the better.

"Hey, are you okay?" Hound asked, having noticed how the Velocitron leader was distancing herself from everyone on the ship.

"I'll be okay once we kick these Stunticons off my home world." Override said grimly, turning to Hound she asked; "What can you tell me about these guys?"

"Other than their dangerous and completely unpredictable they can combine just like the Terrorcons can." Hound began. "Menasor, their combined form isn't as slow as Abominus, and I'm not just talking about his overland speed. Menasor's only real weakness is that the Stunticons that form his body and mind are at total odds with each other."

Override blinked, not sure what Hound was getting at. "How's that?"

"The Stunticon leader Motormaster is loathed by the other four," Hound continued, "and the rest suffer from different mental disorders that make Menasor a confused, walking disaster area. I'm sure if Eject was here you would get a lot more detail but that's what I remember from reading their data specs when I was assigned to help guard them in their detention cells."

"They were imprisoned? Meaning you beat them before." Override said pointedly, wanting more than anything to know how to take them down quickly.

"Me? No. The Aerialbots and a small strike team of Autobots managed to apprehend them but only one on permanent guard duty for those loonies was Ironhide, Kup, and Springer. Even though we had a truce with the Decepticons they just wouldn't stop destroying everything that got in their way. So Megs handed them over to us to keep an eye on. Personally I think it was just so the Decepticons wouldn't have to bother with them."

Override would have smiled at the thought of a group of Decepticons so rowdy that even Megatron couldn't control if the situation wasn't so dire on her home world.

"Hey big sister, are you doing alright?" Came a small feminine voice from the floor near the Speed Planet leader's feet.

Override was happy to see the human that called her 'big sister', it wasn't often that Velocitrons (or Transformers in general) had any siblings. On extremely rare occasions Sparks split, resulting in another Transformer with similar attributes and personality traits but that is the extent of any 'family' Transformers can know. Override was grateful for the opportunity to have someone she could trust on that kind of level. Even if Lori was ten times smaller than her, organic, and short lived compared to how long Override would exist. Override made a note to ask if Lori would like to move to Speed Planet so they could spend some time together.

"Yeah Lori, I'm fine, why do you ask?" Override knew she lying, but she didn't want to upset Lori. The chaos on her world was far too dangerous for the little human to get involved in anyway.

"I'm just checking on ya big sis. You aren't planning anything stupid are you?" Lori warned, as if she could actually stop the eighty ton robot leader.

"Don't worry Lori, I don't intend on doing anything crazy." Override said, mentally adding; 'at least nothing too crazy.'

---

"Why are the Stunticons not with you? I told you to go get them." Scourge growled, giving all three of the Insecticons a very cross glare.

"We tried Scourge, but they were having too much fun. They even offered us a few of their victims as snacks." Kickback said, flicking an oily piece of metal from the side of his mouth. "And they were quite tasty."

"Go back there and pick them up. Even if you have to put them in stasis lock I want the Stunticons back up here. We will need Menasor if we plan on taking control of Cybertron and every other planet of value in this universe."

"In a while Scourge, we're still familiarizing ourselves with this ship's lay out." Bombshell snorted, as he interfaced with the computers. Bombshell was surprised that this antiquated ship had such powerful features. It was no Nemesis but it was impressive considering its age. While doing this the psychological warfare expert was also checking out the ship's energon reserve tank... The amount he saw was enough to make him feel more hungry than ever before.

"Fine. Download the schematics of this ship into each of your memory then go find those daredevils before they damage themselves too badly." Scourge said as he sat back in the captain's chair. The oversized one that Starscream had used after being enlarged by absorbing a part of Primus's spark had long ago been removed and replaced with a standard size control chair. While Scourge knew little of the past events of this ship he was grateful for some peace that sitting in the command chair brought him.

Of course peace was something that never lasted with Decepticons like Scourge, as the lights began to flicker and the ship started to shake.

"I am detecting a power surge in the aft cargo bay. Cargo bay..." Shrapnel said, his systems detecting the amount of electrical power all the way from the cargo bay. If he had sworn to help Scourge he would be down there right now sucking out every bit of power from this ship's seemingly inexhaustible fuel supplies. "Must be that little toy of yours Scourge. Scourge..."

"What's going on down there?" Scourge said flatly, rising to his feet to look at Soundwave.

"I cannot establish visual or audio contact with the cargo bay." Soundwave said as he continued tapping buttons on the control panel and upon discovering that nothing he did caused any reaction to the screen Soundwave lifted the panel opening below the keyboard. "Lord Scourge, it appeared that someone has sabotaged our link to the cargo bay."

Scourge shoved the communications officer aside and looked at the wires himself. His frown instantly turned into a scathing scowl as his optics saw a tangled mess of cut wires.

"Get to work on repairing this mess Soundwave." Scourge ordered a second before opening a communication channel to the Terrorcons. "Terrorcons, proceed to the cargo bay and if those blasted native Decepticons have betrayed us by tampering with the device, you have my permission to eat them."

Kickback laughed, finding this whole situation to be quite comical. It was rare to see a Decepticon leading such a disorganized rabble as this. "Scourge, you truly have a crack team of loyal and dedicated Decepticons here. Why not bring Starscream here and give him the keys to the ship?"

Scourge spared the Insecticon any threatening words and stomped out of the bridge and towards the cargo bay. The Insecticons instantly gathered around to converse privately, already having doubts

Soundwave watched at Scrouge left before getting to work in his repairs. If the Insecticons had stuck around to help Soundwave they might have heard him laughing as he remembered how angry he had just made 'Lord Scourge'. "Shrapnel, how would you like to make a deal?"

---

"So this new 'Scourge' has retained your services while I have been disposed?" Megatron asked, seeing a quick nod from his flunkies he continued. "And this machine has the power to resurrect fallen warriors? With this machine I could never have to worry about defeat again."

Megatron grinned, with this machine he could charge into battle without any worry. If he were to be defeated he could simply be brought back by this device... the possibilities were almost too delicious to believe that this had all just fallen into his lap. From where he stood he could easily take possession of the Omega Lock and fulfill his entire quest for power in a matter of seconds.

Megatron's attention was brought to the door as five large monstrosities bearing the Decepticon insignia barged in, gnashing their teeth and flicking their gazes across the room before setting their optics on Megatron.

"Who this!?" One of Sinnertwin's heads demanded, the second quickly followed up with "Scourge said rip and tear!"

Megatron only smiled calmly and put his hands behind his back. "Oh I don't think you want to eat us my terrifying friends... I think you would find that I am not worth your time. This bot-" with that Megatron kicked Thundercracker forward towards the Terrorcons. "Would make a far more appetizing meal."

"Boss! What are you-" Thundercracker's shock at the sudden betrayal of his idolized leader quickly lost its importance as Hun-grrr's razor sharp mouths grabbed the jet by the leg and arm and began to drag him in. Thundercracker screamed for help but that was stifled when Hun-grrr's clawed foot came down on his face.

"Such ferocity." Megatron did admire the single minded destructive way that Thundercracker was dispatched. If Jungle planet's Scourge had had this frame of mind and had abandoned that honor garbage then Megatron would have had a much more enjoyable minion.

"That will be quite enough." Scourge commanded as he let out a blast from his Targetmaster partner. The show of authority was not lost on the Terrorcons who backed to either side, allowing Scourge to walk forward to look closer at this new arrival for a few moments. Only to grab Ransack by the throat with his free hand and lift the little pile of scrap off his feet. "And what where you thinking of doing hmm? Trying to betray me?"

Ransack sputtered as he was caught off guard, wincing in pain from Scourge's claws began to pierce the light armor casing of his neck. "Ack... Scourge I- erk... I didn't think-"

"Correct. You didn't think. It's not your place to think." With a flick of his wrist he tossed Ransack into the wall hard enough to leave a sizable dent in the metal structure. He turned to the Terrorcons, who had their optics locked on to Ransack and the damaged Thundercracker who was minus a leg and a hand. "Get these worthless tinbots to the energon baths, I want them on the front line when we arrive on Cybertron."

The Terrorcons grumbled, wanting to finish what they started. Never the less they didn't make the trip from the cargo bay an enjoyable one as Sinnertwin and Hun-grrr griped Thundercracker and Ransack by the head with their jaws and dragged them away screaming in a mixture of pain and fear. Crumplezone was torn between going to ensure his friend's health and possibly getting blasted to scrap by Scourge for bringing attention to himself.

"As for you Crumplezone, if you disobey me I assure you I will pull your circuits so I can turn you into a bee hive." Scourge's threat was genuine but exaggerated. He wouldn't have wasted the effort on Crumplezone. He would have simply shot the slow witted Velocitron Transformer and left him adrift in space.

"Cybertron you say?" Megatron asked, daring to step forward to speak to this unusual looking Decepticon. "And what pray tell are you planning to do once you arrive?"

Scourge gritted his teeth, he was not in the mood for any smart remarks after having to deal with the Stunticons, Insecticons, the native Decepticons and now this unknown Decepticon. "And who are you supposed to be?"

Normally Megatron would have put Scourge in his place for talking to him in such a manner but Megatron knew that more information was needed, in other words deception was called for. "Oh I'm just a soldier loyal to the Decepticon cause... With our leader no longer functioning, I offer my services to you Scourge."

Scourge crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at Megatron. "I will expect nothing but full loyalty from my troops from here on out. Disobey and I will have your disassembled frame welded to the ceiling of the air lock to greet anyone who enters. Do I make myself clear?"

"Perfectly commander." Megatron said, saluting the smaller Decepticon like a good soldier would.

"I hope you remember. I will not give any more second chances. Report to the bridge so that we can begin forming a plan of attack." And with that last remark Scourge turned and left the cargo bay with Fracas in hand. Leaving Crumplezone and Megatron behind.

Once Crumplezone was sure that Scourge was gone, the slow witted racer turned to his born again commander and asked; "Megatron? Why didn't you just blast that no good-"

"Because my dear Crumplezone, situations like this require subtly." Megatron said calmly, "I intend to discover everything I can about Scourge and his band of Decepticons before I make any move. I may not like to admit it but I did take note of everything Starscream said and did to appear the loyal warrior that he was. I too can be just as convincing."

Crumplezone nodded. "Uh... okay..."

"For now don't refer to me as Megatron. Obviously you've told Scourge all about me by now, knowing how gutless you and your companions are." Megatron said, taking on a slight grin. "Relay this to Ransack and Thundercracker immediately and do not allow Scourge's warriors to hear you. That is an order from your superior."

Crumplezone nodded once more. "Uh... Alright..."

Megatron sighed and walked out of the cargo bay. "Of all the Transformers I had to work with why did the only one with any talent or intelligence have to be Starscream?"

---

Velocitron was a world where fast was good and faster was better. Now it's roadways were littered with Transformers who were either severely damaged or in stasis lock. Some however were off line. Breakdown, the oldest living Transformer on Velocitron was doing his best to get everyone back in working order but he and his protégé Clocker were running out of replacement parts and the injured just kept coming in.

Many of the Velocitron Transformers looked as if they had been in a demolition derby. Many of the injuries were not unlike what Brakedown had seen before but some of them looked like something had been chewing on them. Something big. Brakedown finished the last of the seriously injured only to see Clocker arrive with more damaged bots.

"More of those newcomers work? Those five are worse than Crumplezone, Ransack, and Dirtboss ever were. Even that Megatron feller wasn't as much trouble. What'd we ever do to these guys!?" Breakdown was on the verge of overheating, the old robot was sick and tired of seeing nothing but pain and suffering in his workshop.

"Calm down Breakdown or you might blow a gasket." Clocker said, seriously worried about his mentor. This hadn't been a picnic for Clocker either, while Breakdown had been fixing Velocitron Transformers Clocker had been cruising around rescuing anyone who could be repaired. Brakedown hadn't seen the damage these newcomers had done to their world. "Whatever we can do to help is better than doing nothing right?"

Brakedown sighed, his student was completely right. No matter how many bots were brought to him he had to try to repair as many as he could. "You're right, I just wish I was young again so I could put those whippersnappers in their place!"

Clocker just smiled and humored his mentor. The young Velocitron Transformer helped each injured bot into the workshop before heading back out. Clocker braced himself as he headed back onto the roads to look for more survivors on the damaged roads. He didn't even see Motormaster coming up from behind him.

To be continued.

AN: okay, here we are another chapter and another author's notes. I wanted to add G1 Blurr to the fic just for but havingtowritelikethis doesn't look very appealing. That and I feel like I'm beginning to overload my fic with characters. Granted their canon characters and not OCs I don't want to put too many in there and when I do that I often feel that I'm neglecting a few of them. 'Above all know your self' is what I live by in my writing. I know there are sections where I get lazy and misspell things but in my hurry to get things out I can make errors, in my opinion it shows that I'm only human. But at the same time it annoys the crap out of me that I'm not giving you people printed gold. I'm trying hard and I hope you enjoy what I'm dishing out... I only really made this fic because no one else had made a Cybertron/G1 fic and I hope that this fill will motivate someone to try their hands at something similar. I know I'm not the best but I'm trying hard to balance quality with a good rate of updates. Thanks for reading my rant now on to answering your reviews:

GrimlockX4 - I plan on brining in more combiners don't worry. I'm just glad I'm getting regular reviewers, reviews help motivate me.

tomorrow4eva - Actually in my rush to get that chapter done I thought that was how it was spelled. I'm not good with colloquialisms. And as for my mistakes in chapter 11, I heavily blame window's spellchecker for not picking up on the left off sentences. Anyway, all the mistakes you reported are fixed now. Often I get distracted while writing (TV, people in my house, pets, IMs, whatever) and when I get back to writing I've completely forgotten what I've written and continue on without checking what I wrote. It's my biggest flaw as a writer. I'm easily- hey a shiny dime!

tomorrow4eva - Okay, I get it, I make mistakes. I'm not perfect and Windows word doesn't check everything for me. Let's not be the grammar police, look at other fics, they either have more errors than windows Vista or stop at chapter 2. Scourge won't logically revive Cyclonus because the ever loyal sub commander would over power Scourge and bring back Galvatron, who would still be insane. Also, he's not bringing them from the future, he's taking them from the past.

SpartanCommander - Glad you liked the wrench I threw into the works. I felt that Scourge's plans were going too smoothly, I needed to trip him up.

Tigerprime - I hadn't thought about Breakdown from Cybertron! Thanks for the idea! I'm glad you are enjoying my fic!


	15. Intriguing huh?

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs.

Broken boundaries

Part 15

"So you're plan is to simply strike Cybertron using this ship and the warriors you have?" Megatron mused, having only now been told of Scourge's plans. "It seems foolhardy regardless of the strength your men have. You will be vastly outnumbered the second you land."

"Invading Cybertron is the basic idea yes." Scourge said, clicking his claws together. "But I intend to send Bombshell in first. He will gather some new troops for our cause while at the same time making sure we are not seen on Cybertron's ground sensors until it's too late. Judging how easily Optimus Prime was defeated the other Autobots should be no problem."

"So Optimus Prime is out of the picture... Things will certainly be easier from here on out." Megatron said, "I hope you stayed to make sure that his spark is truly extinguished."

"After the Terrorcons dismantled him and I removed the Matrix from his torn body we left him there floating in pieces out in space." Scourge said with a sense of glee in his dark voice. "The odds of even Optimus Prime surviving that kind of damage are infinitesimal."

"Do not be so sure. I have battled Prime so long it is hard to remember a time when I was not fighting him." Megatron chose his words carefully, he did not want to reveal too much of his past or else Scourge would guess to his identity.

"Our Prime has the same luck." Soundwave said from his station at the comm. "Thankfully our Megatron had the same talent at returning from oblivion."

Scourge had to agree. If not for Megatron always returning from the Pit to lead the Decepticons Shockwave, Bludgeon, and Thunderwing would no doubt ran the Decepiticon army into the ground. Still Megatron was back in their home dimension without any way of finding them.

"Still, why not just summon an entire army from across realities?" Megatron asked. "You could have a hundred Decepticons here to do your bidding."

"That's not quite possible my friend." scourge said, liking how professional this soldier acted compared to the other native 'cons. "The energon levels in this ship are taxed each time we use the temporal displacement device, continued usage of would leave us stranded in space or unable to flee in case of trouble. Secondly I doubt I could control many of the Decepticons, and the idea of an army of Starscreams and Shockwaves does not have any appeal to me."

Megatron couldn't agree more, granted he didn't know who this 'Shockwave' was but he gathered his reputation was on par with Starscream's.

"Sir, the Insecticons are in the airlock now." Soundwave said, turning from his place at the comm.

Without any show of appreciation towards his subordinate Scourge turned on his short range radio, connecting to the Stunticons. "Well, did you have fun?" Scourge asked plainly, not truly caring if they had an enjoyable time.

The loud cheer that came from the Stunticons (minus Dead End who just mumbled "So what?") told Scourge that they had been causing more than their usual amount of havoc. Had Scourge been there to see them back he would have seen all the dents and scratches in their armor, while this didn't bother most of the Stunticons, this particularly irritated Dead End.

"Good. Go get yourselves repaired while we prepare for our next trans-warp jump." Scourge said, saying this was the end of the discussion by breaking communications with the Decepticons in the cargo bay.

"Where are we going boss man?" Rumble asked from where he stood at, or rather ON the helm.

"We're heading to the Jungle planet before we head to Cybertron. The Insecticons are going to be our main fighting force when we reach Cybertron." Scourge said. "Enter the coordinates and prepare to leave Velocitron space."

"But... there are only three of them." Crumplezone said, astounding many of the Decepticons present on the bridge that he could process numbers that high.

Scourge smiled, interested how these native Decepticons might view the Insecticons at work. "Don't worry, Crumplezone. There will be many, many more very soon."

---

Optimus Prime stirred the energon bath, finally coming back online after many hours of deactivation. The last things he recalled where Scourge pulling the Matrix from his chest and those Terrorcons tearing at him like ravenous wolves. His entire body ached but this was nothing compared to the sense of loss he felt having lost the Matrix of leadership to a Decepticon and possibly fellow friends and warriors... But before the shame of defeat could sink in logic asserted itself. He knew that the Decepticons would never have taken the time to repair him, obviously his fellow Autobots had managed to salvage him and repel the Decepticons.

He could see Red Alert running scans on another Autobot who was laying on the examination table. As Prime's vision sharpened he could see that it was Steelburst and he was apparently in the final stages of repair. Optimus attempted to move but discovered that his every movement resulted in pain. The Autobot commander resigned himself to rest floating in the energon bath, the more he rested the faster he would recover and the faster he could resume command and make up for his mistakes.

After studying the read out on the screen Red Alert could only say; "Well, that's odd."

Coby looked up at the medical Autobot. "What's odd?"

"Well putting Steelburst's very unusual modifications aside, according to the scans I just took Steelburst is operating at peak physical efficiency. This equipment wasn't damaged in the battle so what I'm seeing isn't an error. But what I'm seeing are two different sparks contained inside his body." Red Alert moved so that the children could see the computer screen more clearly. There was a detailed outline of Steelburst's inner workings in all their complexity and active movement but among the metal there were two hard to miss points of light. One was contained where it should have been, in the chest cavity but the second was actually inside his head.

'Two sparks?' Optimus wondered silently from the energon bath. 'Is that even possible?'

"What's so strange about that Red Alert?" Lori asked casually, she couldn't really understand why that was unusual since Optimus had often combined with other Transformers. Won't that qualify as having two sparks in your body?

"That's strange about this Lori is that when Steelburst first arrived I performed a standard medical scan on him and I distinctly remember him having only one." Red Alert said. "It's not possible for a spark to just appear out of nowhere with no reasonable cause."

Coby managed to jump from the table to the control panel to get a closer look at the readouts. Yeah there were two sparks inside Steelburst's body, and looking back at Thunderblast's previous scans on the opposite screen Coby noticed something. "There's no residual carbon scarring in Thunderblast's spark core. That means that her spark didn't just go offline."

"I noticed that too, but it's possible that it was simply sucked out when she ran out of energon without causing normal carbon scarring." Red Alert said, "Are you implying that Thunderblast's spark was removed and somehow installed in Steelburst?"

"Aaah! Steelburst is possessed!" Bud shrieked, having jumped to conclusions once again.

Lori whacked Bud on the top of his head, causing a small lump to appear on the child's head. "Shut up Bud."

Red Alert thought for a moment, trying to remember all the details on albonite crystals as well as the significant dangers. "It is possible that it was removed, but if her spark core was exposed to the atmosphere for even a second Thunderblast's spark would have been absorbed by the albonite crystals and destroyed."

"I feel fine." Steelburst said sharply, sitting up on the table. "Next time check to be sure I'm still in repair mode before you talk about me as if I'm not in the room."

"You're awake? I thought you were in repair mode." Red Alert felt flustered by Steelburst's words, but his surprise to see him up and about so soon masked it quite well.

"I'm going to go somewhere where I can be alone." Steelburst said curtly as he hopped off the table, flexed his reattached arm to test the repairs rendered and stomped off, only pausing to glance at Thunderblast's

Red Alert was puzzled, the last time he had spoken with the Autobot he had been aloof and moody, now he was seemed surly but focused. This second spark was clearly influencing him in some way, the chance that it belonged to the Decepticon femme would explain his behavior but Red Alert couldn't make any sure calls on it. If Thunderblast was inside Steelburst he certainly wasn't acting as hostile as she would, things weren't adding up. Still, there was no reason to take chances. Activating his internal short range radio Red Alert contacted Hot Shot.

"Hot Shot, you got a minute?" Red Alert asked.

Hot Shot blinked from his place at the Ogygia's navigational controls. "What's up Red Alert? How's Optimus coming along."

"Optimus is fine. But that's not what I called you about." Red Alert said. "I'd like you to do me a favor, I'd like you to keep an optical sensor on Steelburst. I can't say for sure but I think something happened to him on the planet."

"I'll keep both of them on him. Over and out." Hot Shot rose from his place at the helm. "Hey Hound, you think you can take the wheel for a while? Red Alert needs me for something."

"Can do. With our position orbiting the Speed Planet there's not much call for this station." Hound walked over and took Hot Shot's place, "Reminds me of the Ark's configuration. I think I can handle it."

Hot Shot nodded and took his leave, using his sensors he easily located Steelburst in the cargo bay, sitting down mumbling to himself. Hot Shot kept his distance, not wanting to let Steelburst know he was being watched.

---

After all this time the children remained in the medical bay, waiting for Coby to get all the oil and grease off of his hands and coat. The only Cybertronians in the medical bay were the Minicons, Optimus Prime who had shown no signs of life, and Thunderblast who was nothing more than a lifeless shell on a table.

Jolt, as well at the other Minicons, had grown increasingly bored with the idleness of the medical bay. Surely the humans would want to do something interesting. "Well since there's nothing to do what do you guys want to do now?"

Coby turned to look at Jolt. "What do you mean?"

Jolt sighed, did this really require more explanation? "Well since there's no more repair work to do on the ship or on any of the crew, what should we do now?"

"I don't really feel like bugging anyone right now, I wanna be here when Optimus wakes up!" Bud said, a little too energetic for Lori's taste.

Jolt blinked, usually Bud would jump at the chance to do something entertaining instead of waiting around. Then again, they could do both. "Well, what could we do while we wait for Optimus to recover?"

"How about we watch some more of those movies that Eject let us watch back on Cybertron?" Bud asked, his smile only fading when he noticed Lori's frown.

"Bud, Eject is back on Cybertron. How are we going to watch videos he has a million miles away?" Lori pointed out.

Bud scratched the back of his head and silently retracted his earlier idea.

"Well," Jolt began, "When no one was looking I copied a few vid files when we were back on Cybertron..."

"Alright!" Bud squealed, "Get the popcorn and hit the lights it's movie time!" (1)

---

The Ogygia had landed on the surface of Velocitron and the Autobots had split up into teams to check on the damage done and to help any injured bots that they could find. Steelburst had left with Hotshot, Override was with Red Alert, and lastly Hound and Jazz. Leobreaker had stayed behind to guard the ship and keep an eye on the children and Minicons.

On Velocitron, Override could hardly believe what she was seeing. The race ways were in ruins and there were bits and pieces of her people here scattered among the rubble. In all of Velocitron's history no one had ever done something like this. Upon loosing the Velocitron Cyber Planet key to the Autobots Megatron left without doing major damage to anything or anyone.

"Is this the full extent of the Decepticons?" Override wondered out loud, "Is this what will happen if we let Scourge get away with whatever he's planning?"

"Knowing the Decepticons this is only a taste of what to come." Hound said over the radio, "Override, I'd understand if you wanted out of this mission to help your people."

Override's answer was swift and final. "No. Since they aren't here now that means they only stopped here for a short time. If we don't catch them now they could do this to every other Transformer world."

"Understood, I'll continue looking over in this part of the planet. Radio me if you run into any trouble." Hound then ended radio contact to continue his survey of his part of the arid Speed Planet.

Override walked down the empty speedway, eyeing the piles of debris and twisted pieces of Transformer bits with a mixture of sadness for the loss of life and unfathomable fury towards the ones that were reasonable for these acts. As she passed by one large pile she recognized one of the Transformers laying on the asphalt twisted in half. "Clocker!"

Red Alert rushed over and shook his head. Red Alert had seen a lot in his profession but this was definitely one of the more gruesome scenes. "He's in stasis lock, but he'll have to be completely rebuilt. The damage is that severe, he's lucky to be functioning at all."

Override heaved a sigh of relief, glad to see one of her fellow Velocitronians was going to survive this nightmare. "So he'll be alright then?"

Red alert nodded, "If I can get him to a place with the proper tools I can stabilize his condition."

Override transformed into her Velocitronian racer mode. "Load Clocker on. I know Breakdown has all the equipment we need, since his repair bay is closer than the ship we are. I'll lead the way."

"Sure," Red Alert said, carefully picking the wreckage that had once been Clocker and placing it on the Velocitronian leader's roof. "Just take it slow, if he falls off it could result in further damage or even loss of spark."

"Slow..." Override groaned, rolling out at a meager five miles per hour. "The one thing I can't stand. But if it's to help Clocker."

"Be glad there's enough of him here to salvage Override." Red Alert said over the radio, having transformed to his missile truck mode. "All the others have been offline for quite some time."

Override grumbled as she continued to move along at an agonizingly slow pace balancing the broken halves of one of her friends on her roof. What else could go wrong?

---

To be continued.

---

(1) Bud! Keep your filthy hands off my popcorn! MINE!

After going back and looking at my past chapters, I noticed that Steelburst is getting the only real character development. Maybe because he's a fan character and he needs it to establish his personality but I feel like I'm too centered on him. As the author I tend to look at things too analytical about my characters and their personalities. Then again the hardest critic to a writer is the writer himself. Does it seem like he's getting too much 'on air' time?

Also had a creepy TF:Animated story idea with the plot resembling Soundwave turning humans into robots like the Cyber men from Dr. Who, the story would revolve around Sari having her humanity violently ripped away and being turned into a robot and the Autobots helping her adjust once they restore her mind. Just a random story idea if anyone wants it because I don't think I'll write it since I have fics already in the works.

GrimlockX4

A good question, but I haven't gotten there just yet. Good luck on that, I'm glad to see I pushed someone to try their hand at something new. Sadly I didn't think highly of Energon or Armada because of the whiney/angsty kids. The G1 verse I use is something of an amalgam of the Movie/TV G1 show and the marvel/G2 comics. I wish you luck on yours.

SpartanCommander

Yeah, but I can't exactly bring Dreadwing in if I haven't seen him in the comics/shows. The G2 comics didn't have him in there for very long.

cmdrtekk

Thanks, I try to give people what they want, hence the longer than usual chapter.

tomorrow4eva

Sorry dude, I had a lot of pressure while making this chapter (not from you, other things) and guess I wrote that a little too harsh. But yeah, the Stunticons should get some therapy.


	16. In the wake of madmen

Imagine if the buggies are in fact hermaphrodites

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 16

Clocker was in bad shape, that was obvious. But Breakdown nearly had a meltdown when he saw that his apprentice was in such a condition. Override and Red Alert managed to calm the old Velocitronian down to begin work on Clocker, although it would take time to even ensure the young bot's survival.

"So those newcomers did this to Clocker? Who are they?" Breakdown asked, watching closely as Red Alert began to throw parts together to keep Clocker's spark intact.

"Override can you fill him in? I've got my hands full." Red Alert didn't mean to sound rude, he just had a lot on his mind right now.

Override nodded, "Okay, from what I know a Decepticon from another dimension is rounding up any help he can get and has managed to break five Decepticons called the Stunticons out of a prison to help him."

Brakedown gritted his teeth, he hated not being the one to repair Clocker. The kid had grown on the old bot over the many stellar cycles he had come to know Clocker and if he lost him now Breakdown didn't know what he would do..

Red Alert could almost feel his old ally's anxiety, he gave the old bot a comforting smile. "Don't worry old timer, Clocker will be fine."

Breakdown's frustration was almost completely replaced by relief, but he felt that he had to keep this young upstart on his toes. "Old timer? That's something you'll never be if you don't do everything in your power to get Clocker on his feet!"

Override chuckled, it was good to see so much spirit in this one old bot.

Elsewhere on Velocitron Hot Shot and Steelburst were resting on a cliff overlooking a long winding stretch of speed way. Below the Velocitronians that had survived the attack were sickened at the sight of the state of their world and were doing their best to clear the roads so others could be carried to the repair bays more quickly.

"Man those Decepticons sure can do a lot of damage..." Hot Shot muttered, he had thought of this planet as his second home, a place that resonated strongly with his desire for high speed and to see what Scourge could do to it in such a short time was infuriating.

"Yeah, great isn't it?" Steelburst proclaimed.

Hot Shot looked at his partner, almost at a loss for words why Steelburst would joke like that. "What?"

"I said it's a horrible tragedy." Steelburst said, looking at Hot Shot with his piercing green optics. "Are your audio receptors malfunctioning?"

To say Hot Shot was confused was an understatement. He had never really gotten to know him like Jazz or Hound but his impression of him was this: Steelburst was fifty two cards short of a deck. "Well... I... maybe..."

"Fine then, I've rested long enough. Let's go look for anyone who survived this wonderful horrible destruction." Steelburst leapt off the side of the cliff, transforming to jet mode to fly above the wrecked speedway.

Now Hot Shot understood why Red Alert wanted this bot under surveillance, he was crazier than Megatron, Sideways, and Starscream put together. Swallowing his pride Hot shot slid down the steep incline of the cliff to transform and follow after his bizarre partner.

Jungle planet was a beautiful but dangerous place. The Transformers here were often short tempered and prone to acts of savagery but many of them adhered to a sense of honor that many had in common. Despite this the Jungle planet was filled with various organic creatures that inhabited the planet wide forests that made many of Earth's predators seem tame and sedate but today new predators were on the prowl.

Snarl was resting on the top step of the temple that was Scourge's base of operations after a day of sparring against Undermine and Brimstone under the tutelage of Backstop. (1)

Snarl was pleased that Scourge was heading back to Jungle Planet, Undermine and Brimstone weren't much of a challenge when Leobreaker and Scourge were so much more than just empty headed brawn. Still, sparring with those two was more fun than repairing the necessary repair stations scattered around the planet just in case anyone needed to have repairs or upgrades. The former bodyguard found construction work too boring for his tastes, regardless of how important it was.

Hyberborea, the ancient ship of the Jungle planet was due to arrive within the next solar cycle and nearly everyone was growing impatient to see their strong leader again. Snarl had to agree he could not wait to spar against the planet's leader once more himself. Snarl couldn't help but notice that on the horizon was a thick black cloud that was coming towards him, somehow against the wind.

Snarl stood, he didn't like what he was seeing. This cloud could represent a very powerful threat to the planet, he did not know how he knew this but he chalked it up to his warrior instincts. Transforming to wolf mode, Snarl raced off to investigate.

Megatron watched the events taking place on Jungle Planet from the Ogygia's monitors with a degree of indescribable disgust. Thousands of green slimy cocoons were bursting open, revealing copies of Shrapnel, Kickback, and Bombshell that flew upwards into the Jungle Planet's sky to form a massive swarm.

"Yeeck. That's gross." Ransack said, his larger companion Crumplezone nodded in agreement, unable to speak for fear his energon pump would back up.

"I don't understand. How can these Insecticons create copies of themselves from organic matter?" Megatron asked, turning to the otherworldly Decepticon. "Are they drones?"

Scourge smirked at this one competent native Decepticon. After he conquered this dimension he might have this one as his second in command. "I do no pretend to know how they can accomplish such a task, but they can seemingly create endless amounts of lesser copies of themselves."

"I see, you wanted to stop here to replenish our fuel supplies and increase our ranks at the same time." Megatron was impressed, normally his underlings were thoughtless thugs who had no warfare experience and nothing important to add to any situation besides utter disappointment. "You have no idea how nice it is to work with someone with some margin of professionalism Scourge."

Megatron was doing the one thing that Scourge had enjoyed more than anything since he had gained troops, stroking his ego. "The only thing I like more than the wails of screaming Autobots is a soldier who shows respect."

If Soundwave were human he would have felt extremely sick. Win or lose he just wanted this to be over as fast as possible now. But for appearances he would continue to support Scourge as well as he could. "Lord Scourge, are you sure that sending the Terrorcons with them was a good idea?"

Scourge turned sharply towards Soundwave, his good mood evaporating like drops of water on a hot pan. "Are you questioning my decisions Soundwave?"

"No Scourge, I only desire insight to your plans." Soundwave said, attempting to sound as inoffensive as possible despite his emotionless voice. "The Terrorcons are wild and if let free with no orders it may be hard to recall them."

"I assure you Soundwave, nothing has gone wrong with my plans thus far and nothing will go wrong." Scourge said, "And if I decide to keep parts of my plan to myself that is my prerogative as leader."

"...As you command Scourge." Soundwave turned back to the control panel. Silently swearing revenge on his arrogant leader.

The children and Minicons were sitting on a control panel in the medical bay of Velocitron's ancient ship, Ogygia. All of them were comfortable, or as comfortable one can get sitting on cold hard metal, and they each had a had bowl of freshly popped popcorn (Bud you're banned from the green room, no more taking food onto the set!) and they were ready to watch some movies from the other Autobot's dimension.

"Do you think this will be like that other show we watched on Cybertron?" Bud asked, eating a handful of popcorn from his bowl.

"This aren't movies Bud," Jolt said. "These are datatracks from dozens and dozens of Autobots and Decepticons to create a unbiased accurate historical record."

"Yeah show some respect." Lori said, shooting the young blonde haired kid a sour look.

"Well here we go." Jolt said, checking to make sure the kids and his fellow Minicons were sitting before hitting the play button.

The screen blinking on to show a crowd of Decepticons gathered around a raised platform with stairs leading up to where Starscream stood wearing a regal cape made just for him. Behind him stood Ramjet who was pleased to be the new Decepticon leader's second in command. (2)

The Constructicons blew Transformer sized trumpets in honor of Starscream's ascendance to leader of the Decepticons. None were happy that they would soon be taking orders from the overly smug jerk so everyone was taking the festivities with a grain of salt. The Constructicons were lined up on the steps with trumpet like horns to sound in the coming of their new leader. None of the expert builders wanted to be in on it, they were among the many who thought this was utterly pointless after all nothing akin to this gaudy celebration occurred when Megatron became leader of the Decepticons.

Astrotrain stood by Starscream with the crown that Starscream had demanded to wear to show his authority. During the battle Astrotrain had been tempted to simply transform and leave them all to battle in the cold of space while he trekked on to Cybertron but he knew if anyone made it back then he would face the new leader of the Decepticons. So he was forced to bear the fighting when he was in space shuttle mode. He was about to crown Starscream when another sound of the Constructicons blowing the trumpets once more caused Astrotrain to pull the crown back, causing the crowd to chuckle at Starscream's embarrassment.

"Get on with the ceremony!" Starscream shouted impatiently at the other Decepticons.

Confused, the Constructicons looked at each other before continuing to blow their trumpets causing Astrotrain to halt again with placing the crown on Starscream's head. With that final insult, Starscream carefully aimed his arm mounted null ray cannon and shot once, successfully destroying all of the trumpets at once. With no more interruptions from the Constructicons, Astrotrain crowned Starscream.

The other Decepticons found this whole ceremony to be ridiculous and over elaborate for a spineless, arrogant, blowhard like Starscream but he had beaten everyone who was returning to Cybertron. Even if he did so by hiding in the corner and coming out when everyone else was tired and injured to sucker punch the few that were standing. A cowardly move but it was a clever one on his part.

Starscream's cape flowed behind him as he waved his hand to address his newly claimed army. This was the moment he had been waiting for over four million year. "My fellow Decepticons! As your new leader I-"

Starscream had barely begun his practiced speech when the boom of an incoming engine interrupted him. All optics turned to see a dark blue futuristic jet and four incoming hovercraft like vehicles right behind it. The jet extended its landing gear and touched down on the ground, it was slowing but not enough as it continued to roll into the crowd into the Decepticons causing them to scatter for fear of being run over. the cockpit of the jet snapped opened to release a sixth similarly colored Decepticon with an orange particle cannon leaped out to continue on towards the tall dais where Starscream stood. The jet, along with the hovercrafts transformed into robot mode and followed this newcomer.

"Who disrupts my coronation!?" Starscream bellowed, boiling with rage at the audacity that someone would dare to interfere in his moment of celebration over his despot of a leader.

The jet transformed into its robot mode allowing its passenger, an intimidating indigo colored Decepticon with three prong-like horns on his head and an orange elliptical wrist mounted cannon like weapon.

"Coronation Starscream? This is bad comedy." The dark colored Decepticon with the orange arm cannon spat, tightly clenching his fist.

The other Decepticons that arrived with this upstart remained silent, but cast vengeful glances towards some of the Decepticons present in the crowd.

Starscream stared perplexed at this new comer and his indigo colored colleagues. How could this bot had known his name? Starscream had never seen these Decepticons before but they seemed to know him. And this one with the large arm mounted cannon seemed to have a vendetta against him as he glared at him with heated eyes. "Megatron is that you?"

"Here's a hint!" Without a second to waste this newcomer transformed into something resembling a mounted laser cannon and took aim at Starscream. There was a flash as a blast of chemically created electricity collided with the newly crowned Starscream. For a few seconds the Decepticon leader glowed and crackled as violent shocks of electricity racked his body in a few moments of extreme agony. The Decepticons below stood with a mixture of shock and satisfaction at seeing Starscream in such pain. Before Starscream could even utter a sound his entire body went stiff as the differing metals that composed his frame crumbled to dust where he stood. Starscream's crown somehow survived the attack and fell with the remains of it's bearer to the floor where it bounced down the stairs to the newcomer's feet. With hardly a pause the indigo Decepticon crushed the gold crown with one quick stomp.

The Decepticon who had 'dethroned' Starscream then turned to the hushed crowd and asked; "Will anyone else attempt to fill in his shoes?"

The only response that came from the hushed crowd was from the diminutive Rumble. "What 'e say his name was?"

"Galvatron." He said, raising his plasma cannon to Cybertron's star filled sky.

The Decepticons began chanting 'hail Galavatron!', 'long live Galvatron', or just chanting his name. The screen began going black as Galvatron smirked at how easy it was to destroy the traitor that sent him into the coldness of space. (3)

Bud had dropped his popcorn at the sight of Galvatron offing one of his own men, at Starscream no less. Without any context of past events it seemed like Galvatron had rushed in and committed murder in cold blood.

"So that's what we're up against?" Coby muttered out loud. "These guys aren't going to kid around or turn around and run like Ransack and Crumplezone do when the Autobots slap them around a little... these guys are much worse..."

Lori nodded, "These guys may be bad and all that, but the Autobots can beat 'em."

Bud's only response to all this drama was; "Aww... I spilled by popcorn."

"I said I was fine! Let go you off worlders!" Dirtboss howled as he swung at Jazz as he was set down on the speedway.

Hound and Jazz had stumbled across this irritable Velocitronian hanging from the edge of the highway high above the ground as they had surveyed the speedways to the east of the Ogygia. Both of his legs were crushed beyond recognition and he had tire tracks up his back.

"Hey buddy cool it we ain't gonna hurt ya." Jazz said, holding his hands up to seem less threatening. But it only caused Dirtboss to growl and take another swing at him.

"So what did the bot who did this to you look like." Hound asked, trying to sound reasonably friendly.

Dirtboss snorted but he saw no reason to keep these two out of the loop. "This guy was a big grey semi-truck. He heard me call myself 'king of the road' as I was cruisin' the speedways then started slamming into my side, claiming that I should back my words up with action. Of course I fought back, I wasn't expecting him to knock me onto my side and try to ram me. If I hadn't transformed he would have turned me to little bits of shrapnel."

Hound looked at Jazz, before turning back to Dirtboss. "There was only one of them?"

"Feh, if there was more than that psycho I'd have worse than busted legs." Dirtboss tried to get to his feet but only managed to stumble forward and land on the pavement.

"Got that right, if the other four were here you'd have ended up scrap like a lot of the other Velocitronians we passed." Jazz said, helping Dirtboss into a sitting position.

Dirtboss raised an eyebrow, already beginning to distrust these strangers more and more. "What? You know this guy?"

"His name is Motormaster. He's loathed by even his own team mates and he bullies everyone weaker than him." Hound answered, not knowing how close he was to describing Dirtboss's own personality.

Despite his tough guy exterior Dirtboss wanted to get back to driving the roads as soon as possible, even if it meant having to ask for help. But that didn't mean he had to be polite about it. "Well, are we going to just sit here or are you going to leave me here to rust?"

To be continued.

First off, sorry for the delays. I've had a lot to do helping my father prepare for major back surgery, and going through a nasty case of the flu... that and FF6 eating at my soul. I'll try to hurry the next chapters along, but no promises. Too much going on... -.-;

(1) Okay, I'm not sure if this was destroyed and revealed to be part of the Jungle Planet's ship... it's been a while since I saw any of the episodes...

(2) This is completely made up, but it makes sense why Ramjet would be standing next to Starscream. Plus Screamer had such a short reign in the G1 cartoon (less than 30 seconds XD) I don't think this little tidbit really matters.

(3) Okay, granted if I'm using the animated G1 continuity for Starscream I should be using the same for every character but then I'd have to be calling Soundwave Soundblaster since he was destroyed in headmasters. I'm kinda taking bits from the marvel comics, and the G1 cartoon just so I don't feel like I'm alienating anyone. I know if I just wanted to shock the kids I could have done G1's Megs and OP duking it out but I wanted to focus on the 'Cons since I gave an entire scene to the Autobots. Lastly I labeled Scourge, the sweeps, cyclonus, and galvatron as indigo because in the comics he changes colors between blue and while in the cartoon he was purple. Go figure. Also, that scene was harder to write for than I thought. x.x

Also, by now the more hard core fans will probably notice that I'm not using measurements of time like Breem or Vorn. I felt that 'cycles' would be a little easier to understand since they're known outside the comic-verse.

GrimlockX4

Thanks, I hope this answers all your questions.

lendaras

Nah, I've got all the characters I need. But if you'd ever want to make a co-op fic I'd be happy to give it a go.

tomorrow4eva

Thanks, that means a lot. And as for the Decepticons I felt that their lack of cooperation is why they always failed. I mean Starscream alone foiled a good share of Megatron's plans in the G1 cartoon. I like how I'm pegging the Autobots as the weaker force but the Decepticons can't work with each other. As for Thunderblast's spark, there's a reason. Hee hee, groovy. XD

Tigerprime

Well I threw that story idea out there if anyone wanted it, I just like to see cool and original fics written but it's almost always the same story over and over. Around here on FF, when I get a good idea I look around to see if it's been done I either see that no one has done it I end up having to write it before my mind rots, or someone wrote it years ago and discontinued it after 1-2 chapters . Thanks for the review though. They're always nice. But as for TF:A, I freely admit I was surprised. I thought it would suck, suck more than the kids from Armada. But the show is incredibly well balanced, the characters are well played out, and despite that it's based on the 07 movie it's not too heavy on it. Plus it earns brownie points by starting out with a nod to G1. … sorry rambling. XD

SpartanCommander

The idea with Steelburst is that Thunderblast is more or less filling in the gaps in Steelburst's mind caused when his headmaster partner died. But yeah, things will be getting awkward after a while. Expect a lot of double talk.


	17. To Jungle planet

Imagine if the buggies are in fact hermaphrodites

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

AN: So sorry for the long overdue update guys... been really busy helping out here with my dad out of commission from his surgery. He's fine, but he can't do any of the heavy work we have to do for a year.

Broken boundaries

Part 17

"So this is the technical data portraying to the headmaster process? Fascinating!" Scattershot said, looking at the screen as he and Eject had done little besides speak of the different technologies of their respective dimensions. It was increasingly obvious that Eject's dimension held far more advances than Scattershot's. "The idea of bonding on a mental and physical level to an is an astounding concept. I'll have to ask you to keep this information quiet. If the kids find out about this headmaster process they'll want to combine with any willing bot."

"Understood. But when I look at this 'powerlink' technology I am reminded of the short lived creations of the Decepticon Shockwave; the Duocons." Eject said, bringing up images of Shockwave and the Duocons Battletrap and Flywheels. "Both had the ability to split into two separate vehicles and reform into their basic robot mode however these two alternate modes had no robot modes of their own. Flywheels was destroyed during an incursion between both factions and Battletrap was eventually terminated by Optimus Prime himself when he was about to fire on Sunstreaker. Now eventually this lead to the triple changers-"

"Whoa slow down Eject!" Scattershot was a little overwhelmed at all the information that Eject was throwing at him. "That's a little more data than I can handle."

Eject laughed from inside the computer console. "Sorry Scattershot, I just love having a fresh audience after all these years."

Scattershot was having a ball, talking with this otherworldly Autobot about all their impressive breakthroughs was almost enough to excuse him for not being there with his friends on this dangerous mission.

Eject would have nodded in understanding if he could in his cassette tape mode. "Let me start again, after the disappearance of-"

"Hold on Eject I'm getting an incoming transmission." Scattershot tapped a blinking light on the control console, the image that appeared on the screen was garbled and distorted and the sound wasn't much better.

"This is the Hyberborea, we are under attack by an unknown force from aboard board the Atlantis! Please send help! They're eating through the -krzzzzk- ..."

"Hyberborea, this is Cybertron, please repeat! Hyberborea do you copy?" Scattershot did his best to reestablish the connection to the Hyberborea but was unsuccessful. "Sorry Eject but it looks like we'll have to continue this later."

Eject understood, and exited the computer and transformed. He may have been small but he could help operate some of the control panels.

--

On board the Atlantis Megatron was observing as the Insecticons and many of these otherworldly Decepticons went about causing fear and destruction around this sector of this green world. This left the reborn Megatron with his twp worthless cronies from Velocitron, Soundwave, and those cassette Minicons who wore the Decepticon badge.

Megatron looked over at the communications expert, he had proved himself to be the most valuable member of Scourge's crew. If he could be bent to his service then Megatron would have no trouble appropriating this technology and "Tell me Soundwave, how long have you followed Scourge's leadership?"

Soundwave remained stationary as he continued to monitor the action below on the planet's surface. "Not long. He had an intriguing plan and I wanted to see if it could be accomplished."

"You obey his orders out of curiosity. Interesting, but I can respect that." Megatron had to admit that he had not expected that from a Decepticon that seemed so cold and logical.

"So I assume that your loyalty to Scourge is without question?" Soundwave turned to face the taller Decepticons. "I would assume that any Megatron of any reality would strive to be only the strongest."

Megatron flinched, how had this alien Decepticon discovered his identity and had he informed Scourge? If Scourge did know about him then what were they planning?

"H-hey how do you know did you know the boss bot's name?" Thundercracker sputtered, caught off guard by Soundwave's sudden reveal.

"Do not worry Megatron, Scourge doesn't know about your identity. He is far too concerned about his own agenda to care." The tape deck Transformer ignored Thundercracker completely. Why should he waste time on a wannabe Decepticon that paled in comparison to the Thundercracker that he had known long ago? Soundwave then returned to monitoring the battle on the monitor.

Crumplezone scratched his head, looking at Thundercracker. "So... is he on our side?"

Thundercracker shrugged. "How should I know?"

--

The Autobots were all reporting back to the Atlantis, they had managed to open up most of the major road ways and gotten many of the damaged 'bots to repair bays. They were tired, they wanted to get back to tracking down the ones responsible for all this destruction. Redalert had send a message to return to the ship because a message had been sent from Cybertron. A bad message. Once everyone had arrived at the ship Redalert welcomed them at the airlock.

"I've got bad news guys, we just got a transmission from Cybertron. The Hyberborea was attacked and something weird is happening on Jungle Planet." Redalert stepped aside so everyone could walk past him when he finished, "The Decepticons are making a mess there too."

"Do we have to leave now? There's so much we can do to help these bots." Hotshot asked, quickly glancing over at Steelburst who seemed entirely neutral on the subject of leaving.

Redalert understood Hotshot's desire to stay, no matter how misguided it was. "Yes, if we want to stop the destruction we have to leave before they finish doing whatever it is they are up to."

"Well we've done all we can," Leobreaker said as he passed Redalert and entered the ship, he wanted to rush to the aid of Jungle planet at once. "After all this is over I'm sure Metroplex will be happy to help rebuild the roads even better then they were before."

"You guys go on without me." Override said, doing her best to not let Leobreaker's insensitive words get to her. "I have a lot to do here and you have to help Jungle planet."

Hotshot didn't think that the Speed planet leader was thinking correctly. If she stayed with them there was a better chance of them taking down the Decepticons. "But Override-"

"Hotshot whatever you guys will face I'm sure you can handle it." Override gave her friends a thumbs up before transforming and racing off to find more survivors. "Oh and don't you dare dent my ship!"

Hotshot shook his head as he watched Override drive off, she was putting the needs of her people over the danger at hand but in this instance he couldn't blame her. If some of Cybertron's city were this badly damaged then he would have wanted to stay behind and help repair the injured and the damaged buildings.

None the less the Autobots boarded the ship and began to ascend, pulling away from Velocitron and was preparing for a transwarp jump to the Jungle planet. During this time the Autobots were all very tired, they had done so much on Speed planet and they may have to do the same thing to aid Jungle planet. The thought was not a pleasant one, both for all the work that would mean to enact repairs on structures and for all the loss of lives. Thankfully, the trip from Velocitron to Jungle planet was not as long as the trip to the mining planet from Cybertron. In a matter of an hour the Autobots were within viewing range of Jungle planet. The Atlantis could be seen plainly as it orbited Jungle planet. Whatever was going on it did not appear that the Autobots had been noticed... yet.

"Looks like the Decepticons haven't left yet," Hotshot said, his optics trained on the screen for even the slightest sign of movement from the Decepticon staffed ship. "I'm moving the ship to a position on the opposite side of the planet. It may not give us total shielding from the Atlantis's scanners but if they aren't looking for us then they hopefully won't see us."

"Good idea, but it's always a good idea to plan ahead just in case. Leobreaker, arm the ships weapons just in case." Redalert said, glad to see Hotshot was using his head for a change. "This ship needs proper repairs, our patch jobs are going to all fall apart if we get hit hard enough. Still there's always the chance we can take them down with us."

The Velocitron ship moved to its destination without any trouble from the Atlantis, they either had not been noticed or the Decepticons were too busy with something to care.

Leobreaker began to tap keys on the control panel, "Now let's see what's going on down on Jungle planet, hopefully there's time to keep these 'cons from causing too much damage."

The screen came on to show an army of large mechanical insects crawling over the exterior of the crashed Hyperborea. From a human standpoint there had to be hundreds of them, but with the aid of the computer of the Velocitronian ship the attackers were counted as only one hundred and sixty four in number.

"What are those things attacking the ship?" Leobreaker asked, disgusted at the sight of these bug creatures.

"The Insecticons?" Breathed Jazz, "How'd they come back?"

"Insecticons?" Bud asked, not liking the sight of giant bugs eating everything that came near them. "You mean those bug bots?"

"No Bud, the giant weasel bots..." Lori muttered sarcastically.

"Yeah, they're high ranking Decepticons turned mercenaries. They were dangerous before arriving on Earth but somehow they learned how to make clones of themselves and they became even more dangerous until they were critically damaged years ago."

"What happened to them after that?" Hot Shot asked, "The other Decepticons put them out of your misery?"

"Sort off. They and the rest of the injured Decepticons were cast out to ensure a safe landing on Cybertron due to the transport being low on energon." (1) Eject explained. "Drifting in space they encountered Unicron who gave them new bodies and names in exchange for serving him."

"So if they aren't... themselves anymore than how are they here?" Leobreaker asked, not understanding the seriousness of the situation.

"I don't know, but only the Insecticons could- wait what's that down there?" Hound pointed to a spot on the screen. "Can you magnify the image at this point?"

Red Alert typed on the computer and the screen zoomed in on the point that Hound had pointed. Down on the ground was Hun-grrr the leader of the Terrorcons in his two headed dragon mode eating a corner of the ship bite by bite.

"Great, just what the day was missing. Terrorcons." Hound grumbled.

--

To be continued.

--

AN: Okay... Sorry for the long wait, hope there are still people out there... I'm getting kinda tired of this fic but don't worry but I plan on finishing it. Afterwards I may do a SHORT G1/Animated crossover, as short as an episode of TF:A. The main thing that hurt me is that I broke one of my writing rules: Don't have more than 6 characters in a group. It really tires me out and it's hard to develop characters that way. This took so long to get done I'm sure there are errors but I want to get this done.

(1) We all remember Astrotrain saying they needed to get rid of weight or they wouldn't make it to Cybertron. This has too meanings to me: Either Astrotrain didn't have the energon/thrust power to land safely or he wanted to cause a fight with the other 'Cons. Admittedly the latter doesn't make a lot of sense but if he knew what Starscream was planning it makes perfect sense.

(2) While many think that Windcharger and Wheeljack were chewed on by the Insecticons (I used to think that way myself) it turns out that there's no real record of it in the movie and nothing that was cut out that was even remotely similar to either being eaten by the Insecticons. In fact that scene it just says 'two dead Autobots' nothing more is revealed.

GrimlockX4 - thanks a lot dude. Hope he gets better quickly myself. He won't be able to go nearly anything for 6 months, and I'll have to pick up the slack around here. Hope you enjoyed the chapter.

tomorrow4eva - Well in the comics Galvatron was encased in ice, later Cobra (that's right, GIJoe's enemy) dug him out and rebuilt him. Thunderblast may get her body back sooner or later. :D

dark knight vergil - Thanks, nice to see a new face. I think they'd me more confused if they saw Rodimus Prime, but I'll keep those ideas in mind.


	18. Begining of the end

Imagine if the buggies are in fact hermaphrodites

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 18

"What would the Decepticons want here on Jungle Planet?" Hotshot asked, "It's a world lacking in nearly all forms of basic Cybertronian comforts."

If Leobreaker hadn't been restrained by Redalert Hotshot would have found a few new dents on his head.

"No idea, but if the Insecticons are left unchecked they could strip the entire planet of vegetation." Hound explained, "Then again they aren't picky about what they eat, I've seen them chew through the armor plating on blast doors back home."

"It looks like they're already chewed their way into the ship." Hotshot paled at a sudden realization; if these bugs could chew through the hull of a die cast constructed ship did that mean that they could eat an Autobot? "Have they ever... eaten any Transformers?"

Hound shrugged. "Not to my knowledge but I wouldn't want to give them the chance." (1)

"Alright, everyone get armed because I'm going to be taking us down on the far side of the planet." Hotshot said, "Jungle planet here we come."

"Hold on Hotshot, it may not be necessary to land THAT far away." Hound said, bringing up a huge map of the terrain around the fallen Hyberborea. "If we can land in a canyon close enough then we may not be noticed."

"I don't think it really matters guys." Jazz said, "Sumthin' tells me ol' Scourge knows we're here but is just too busy to care. Can we tell if the other Decepticons are on the surface causing all this hullabaloo?" (2)

'Hullabaloo?' Redalert shrugged, only able to guess at Jazz's meaning. The medical Autobot tapped on the control panel, double checking the scan of the planet he had taken. "From what I can tell it's just the Terrorcons and those Insecticons. But it seems as if only three of them are actually mechanical."

"They always were pretty disgusting." Hound said shaking his head.

"So what do we do then?" Leobreaker stood, not liking the idea of just sitting there in space while the Jungle planet was wrecked.

"We land, but keep some people on board in case those bugs come to the ship for a snack." Jazz said with a smirk. "And of course we need to keep the guns trained on the Atlantis."

"A good plan." Jazz nodded, approving of his friend's idea. "Hotshot, set us down near that canyon like Hound wanted, we'll try to get to the Hyberborea as quickly as possible when we set down. Just keep a close eye on that Decepticon ship."

Hotshot nodded, he would have preferred to fire on the Atlantis and try to end this all at once but the Decepticons did have the Omega lock and the Matrix... Hotshot wished that Megatron was still around, at least he was an evil they were familiar with.

--

The Terrorcons were enjoying this thick canopied world, they had encountered a few of the residents and found them to be very lacking in combat experience. What remained of these 'bots were now laying scattered on the ground as they explored this world that was promised them by Scourge. So far, they liked this world and would enjoy doing as they pleased with it.

"What do you think of this place Blot?" Sinnertwin asked, turning one of his heads toward the purple, odious Decepticon.

Blot shrugged his shoulders, "It's quiet, and very green."

Cutthroat nodded in agreement, "True, but with a little sprucing up this world could be more hospitable once we have these lesser bots doing our work for us."

Hun-grrr wasn't paying attention, he was busy stuffing his mouthes full of anything that came within range of his long necks. Trees, shrubs, metal, rock, it didn't matter to him. However he did not like the sudden blast of fire that caught the Terrorcon team leader off guard.

"That'll be enough from you five monsters!" Scourge, the leader of Jungle planet roared as he transformed into his two headed dragon mode and charged at Hun-grrr.

A bad mistake on his part, Hun-grrr merely stopped eating and began firing crude shrapnel like projectiles from both of his mouthes, all fashioned from the various things that he had consumed. A stream of sharp bits of wood, rock, and metal proceeded to hit Scourge in the face, both of them.

Howling in rage Scourge leapt to the side into the trees, shielding him as he wiped the shrapnel from both his faces. No sooner had he regained his sight than he felt himself being lifted by something that had pierced both of his sides. Looking beneath him he saw Blot, hoisting him up like the Jungle planet leader was nothing. Scourge howled again and thrashed as hard as he could, knocking the unintelligent Blot off balance and freeing himself in the process. The reformed Scourge transformed to robot mode and readied his axe for battle.

"What's the problem Terrorcons? having a little trouble?" Came a sinister voice from the foliage.

Rippersnapper gnashed his teeth at the newcomers, three of them to be exact. "What do you want Insecticons?"

"As much as I enjoy seeing you morons getting the slag beaten out of you, we have better things to do... to do." Shrapnel said. "Bombshell?"

"On it." The psychological specialist aimed his cerebro shell gun at Scourge and fired.

The last thing that went through Scourge's mind was; 'Is this how it ends?'

--

Optimus floated within the confines of the energon bath, he was still in repair mode, concentrating all his energy towards repairing his body. For all intents and purposes, he was about as lively as a stone as he hung suspended in his tube.

"Optimus Prime..."

The Autobot commander twitched as he heard the voice speak.

"Optimus Prime."

Optimus looked up to see that he was no longer in the energon bath, but rather floating in a black empty void. Uncertain of what was happening, the Autobot commander began to look around for where this voice may have originated, but it echoed in his audio receptors making it impossible to pinpoint its origin.

"Who's there?" Optimus cried out, still trying to figure out who that voice belonged to. He felt as if he had heard it somewhere before but could not remember where...

"The Decepticons are playing with a force they cannot possibly hope to control." Said the voice, "Time will begin to degrade until all things begin to happen at once. People who never existed here will appear, friends you once knew will vanish, Cybertron itself may fade into nothingness if you do nothing."

"No!" Optimus cried, refusing to allow all that his Autobots had worked for to become meaningless. "Tell me what to do!"

Sadly Optimus never received an answer. The Autobot commander found himself garbling on those very words as he floated in the energon bath. Optimus Prime stirred in the transparent tank, his wounds were almost healed thanks to the energon bath but that wouldn't keep him from his rightful duties. He forced his fingers pushed the glass chamber's door open and climbed out, closing the door behind him to keep the energon from flooding the room.

This had not gone unaware by the children, who had been taking turns watching video files from the other universe and keeping an eye on the other Autobots.

"Hey guys! Optimus is awake!" Bud shouted, pointing out the obvious once again.

"Alright Optimus!" Lori cheered, grinning from ear to ear and pumping a fist into the air. "So good to see you're okay."

If not for the tremendous pain and the ominous premonition, Optimus would have smiled 'from ear to ear' as humans say at the sight of the children. They could always draw out some hidden source of confidence out of him, Optimus would try to put on a cheerful face just for them.

Coby turned to the Minicons, he was just as happy as Coby and Bud but he knew what had to be done. "Jolt, you should go get the others down here."

"No need," Jolt pressed a few of the huge Autobot sized buttons to connect to the bridge. "May I have your attention please? Optimus Prime is awake and on his feet!"

There was about a minute of silence in the halls that was cut short by the thunderous rush of all the native Autobots. In no time Leobreaker, Redalert, and Hotshot were standing in the medical bay. Hound and Jazz had remained on the bridge monitoring at the helm, and Steelburst was... somewhere in the cargo bay.

"How are you feeling Optimus?" Redalert asked, instantly headed for his medical equipment. He was as overjoyed as the others but there were priorities that had to be seen to before he could celebrate.

"Lousy, but at least I'm able to get around now." Optimus straightened himself up, silencing the pangs he felt in his joints with what metal stamina he had. He couldn't let pain stop him now, there was work to do.

Redalert frowned, no one ever seemed to take his medical opinion seriously. "Sir you've still got a lot to recover from. I'm seeing stress on all your joints. You really should be back in the energon bath."

Optimus waved a dismissive hand at the logical member of the Cybertron defense team. "That'll be all Redalert, bring me up to speed on the situation."

Before any of the Autobots could begin Bub blurted out; "Well, we've landed on Jungle planet and there's a mess of Insecticons, more Decepticons from the other dimension, eating the crashed Hyberborea. It's so nasty."

Lori cracked her knuckles and with an echoing blow knocked Bud off his feet. (3)

Coby winced, once more he was glad that he never ticked Lori off as bad as his little brother. The Autobots were all glad that Lori wasn't born an Autobot or else she would have been doing that to them all the time instead.

--

Megatron was no fool, standing in front of the massive machine that had restored him to life filled him with possibilities. He wasted no time in downloading the data pad that Soundwave had so careless left laying around on the bridge was of great help. Or perhaps Soundwave had left it where it could be stolen, that Decepticon was scheming something but he couldn't tell what it was. Perhaps he was helping Megatron, or maybe he was aiding Scourge. No, it didn't look that way. Something else was driving him to do this.

Megatron began to press buttons, the first of his reborn warriors would be Nemesis Leobreaker. The ever loyal if unintelligent creature born from Unicron's power and Leobreaker's uncertainty. He would be a welcome addition to replace these hopeless warriors that he had in his company now. Soundwave would a strong recruit as well, but Scourge would have to be disposed of, he was too arrogant for his own good.

Megatron watched as the power of the Omega lock sent a beam of energy into the Matrix. Soon he would have all of his old warriors, even Scorponok and Demolisher would be better than Thundercracker and those two idiots Ransack and Crumplezone.

It was then Megatron noticed something was odd, the steady beam of energy was now surging and bending in erratic patterns. Megatron attempted to abort the processes but the controls were no longer responding. All he could do was stand and watch as a dark hole appeared where the energy was being projected into the Matrix.

The Transformer that emerged from the rip in time and space was one unlike any Megatron had ever seen. He was tall, not as tall Metroplex but close enough for Megatron's tastes. His frame was best described as gray with purple detail but it's design was that of an ancient Transformer, his faceplate was that of a grated furnace which fit his countenance well, as he was wreathed in flame from head to foot which seemed to emanate from his joints and infrastructure.

"It's been a long time," He said in a voice that seemed to shake the deck plates that made up the ship's floor. "But the Fallen has risen once more."

--

To be continued.

--

Short chapter I know but making them as long as I used to isn't possible any more. Besides shorter chapters mean quicker updates. I've just switched from Windows to Linux so I'm still learning my way around it.

(1) While many think that Windcharger and Wheeljack were chewed on by the Insecticons (I used to think that way myself) it turns out that there's no real record of it in the movie and nothing that was cut out that was even remotely similar to either being eaten by the Insecticons. In fact that scene it just says 'two dead Autobots' nothing more is revealed.

(2) Please don't argue with me, I don't think there even IS a correct way to spell that.

(3) CHILD ABUSE! CHILD ABUSE! :D I demand more!

GrimlockX4 - I think you mean TF:A but don't expect as many characters. In fact it could just be Steelburst.

Dark knight vergil - Why only 2 gestalt teams? TOO MANY CHARACTERS. Writing for so many characters burns me out quickly. Secondly some of the gestalt teams are dead in the comics, the Predacons were killed by Megatron himself.

tomorrow4eva - I think by now I've stopped caring about spelling errors dude. I don't bother with beta readers because I've found that most people just skim them or just don't read them at all. I just run a spell check and fix anything that comes up. It only catches things that are either misspelled or that apply to its unique brand of moon logic. Besides, I want to get on to other projects since this one is become very unfun.

SpartanCommander - To me the interaction between series characters and races are always my favorite thing to read about.

cmdrtekk - It's not just that, it's also a computer problems. I can't upload things from this computer, I have to upload from mine which means I have to lug it all the way to the living room. But don't worry, I tend to finish my stories more often than other authors.


	19. Interesting workings

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 19

--

Sitting in the cargo bay, muttering incoherently to himself, was Steelburst. The two sparks that inhabited his body were arguing with each other, threatening to destroy what little hold on reality Steelburst had left. Thunderblast had been okay with hanging around with these Autobots so far, but the more she learned of her... partner's outlook she had begun to suggest taking off to join the Decepticons. While Steelburst was not an exemplary example of an Autobot he wasn't about to just up and join the Decepticons. He just wanted to watch more Earth television programs, which Thunderblast didn't care for.

"So what are you going to do? Just sit here muttering to yourself?" Thunderblast said, although if any one else was there to hear her words they would have thought it was Steelburst referring to himself.

"Of course not. I thought I was muttering to you." Was Steelburst's response, completely serious much to Thunderblast's irritation.

"Guh... what about me? I'm a Decepticon I should be trying to destroy these guys!" Thunderblast grumbled. "I mean this whole union hasn't been very fair."

"How about we check on your body?"

"Yeah. Sounds good." Thunderblast held no warmth in her words, she only wanted this union to be over as quickly as possible. The spiraling echo of their interlocking minds caused her to experience the guilt that her own words had caused but at the same time she could feel the forgiveness that came from him.

Steelburst stood and walked to the medical bay to check on Thunderblast's body. Steelburst and his on board companion could see one of the humans sitting on the control panel, another was taking a break on the examination table, and the third was trying to learn how to pilot what looked like one of those mechanical vermin called scrapmetals.

The sight of her body in one piece brought relief to Thunderblast's spark, she only wished that her spark was inside it. Truth be told Steelburst did not want this union to end so soon. While they may be different in nearly every sense of the word he had come to rely on her to provide some sense of stability in his damaged mind. "Can I ask you something Thunderblast?"

Thunderblast shook her head, or some equivalent thereof. "I already know what you're going to ask, and no I don't hold any grudges. Even if you did make me crash and then tore out my spark."

Steelburst felt the venom in those last few words, even though he was able to read every part of her mind females were still confusing. Thunderblast seemed to like that he was confused, proud in fact.

"Hey Steelburst, glad to see your up."

Steelburst turned to see Lori, one of the humans who had come along for the ride. Thunderblast recognized her as the pesky little human who had a big mouth and turned Scourge into a goody two shoes.

"Well hello little mouse." Steelburst snorted.

"Excuse me?" Lori snarled up at the larger transformer, she remembered that insult and the decepticon that had used it. "Thunderblast?"

"Yeah I'm in here little mouse, and don't you forget it." Steelburst said waving a finger in a very feminine manner at the human. "Now how's my body coming along?"

Coby gritted his teeth as he double checked the list of damaged systems that he had to repair, sure enough they were all fixed and in perfect condition. Not that Coby had willingly done as fantastic a job repairing the decepticon as well as he did on Steelburst or Optimus. The only thing he hadn't repaired was her missing spark chamber.

Steelburst then did the most disturbing thing the children had ever seen a transformer do: he ripped his own head and tossed it onto the table.

"Oh my god Steelburst decapitated himself!" Bud screamed, before suddenly gripping the back of his head thinking that Lori was nearby.

Lori was nearly as freaked out as the younger boy was but she wasn't about to scream and carry on like that little twerp.

Steelburst's head suddenly lurched and transformed into a miniature version of the black and green transformer with the large face plate now serving as a shield attached to the right arm.

"Well it's interesting to be so close to the eye level of you mice." Thunderblast said, her voice coming out of the small robot. "Now how the heck do I get back in there?"

"Well, uh, how did you get out of it in the first place?" Coby asked, he didn't really want to help Thunderblast but she was

"The idiot over there tore my chest open, ripped out my spark core, and stuck it in this thing." Thunderblast huffed, crossing her arms.

"Hey wait," Lori spoke up, refusing to be quiet just because Thunderblast said so. "Why exactly are you going to put her back in her body? She was working for the other decepticons, what's to keep her from jumping up and trashing the ship?"

"Yeah, much worse as long as she's here she's learning all of our weaknesses" Bud added, wanting to feel like he was part of the conversation.

Thunderblast groaned, this was going to take forever.

--

"Fallen eh? Not terribly original are you?" Megatron mused, looking completely unafraid of this gigantic Transformer that had appeared out of the machine. Perhaps he would not need any of his old warriors if this robot would bend to the Decepticon cause.

"Tell me why is it that I sense the presence of my master about you." The Fallen's blazing eyes narrowed, evoking a miniscule sensation of fear that Megatron had not felt in what seemed like eons.

Megatron gritted his teeth (or some facsimile thereof), it did not seem that Megatron could simply sweet talk this Transformer into working for him. He would have to try a method that he had much practice with these days; playing stupid.

"I assure you that I do not know what you are tal-ck!" Was as far as he got before The Fallen's massive hand gripped Megatron's head and slammed him into the wall with indescribable ease.

The Fallen's eyes narrowed. "I will not ask again."

"As you wish, my armor was made from the remains of Unicron after his defeat."

A dull sound echoed from within The Fallen's faceplate. Megatron knew not what it was but he guessed that it was a chuckle. "You fool, Unicron can never truly be defeated."

Megatron grunted, trying to use both hands to try to dislodge the ancient Transformer's grip on him. "What do you mean? I purged Unicron's spark and destroyed it long ago in a star."

Another dull chuckle. "Unicron merely abandoned this universe. Without a body he could not consume worlds so he moved on to another reality." The Fallen boomed, "The Chaos Bringer is not limited to time and space as we. But no matter, it seems you were able to bring me here. Tell me in detail what this machine does."

Megatron held his tongue and told the ancient transformer what he knew of the device, but despite his lack of technical knowledge The Fallen, a he was called seemed satisfied with what Megatron had to offer.

"You will help me set this machine on the hull of this vessel." The flaming transformer said, giving the Decepticon leader a condemning glare.

"I do not think that you have the authority to demand anything of me." Megatron responded before calling on the power of his Cyber key to allow his rotary gun to appear in his hand and unleashed a rapid fire barrage at the ancient Transformer.

The attack caused The Fallen to drop Megatron who fled down the hallway. But The Fallen did not follow, he was busy studying the Time displacement device. He recognized both the Matrix and the Omega lock as containers of Primus's power, as much as he wanted to destroy these objects there and now The Fallen would have to wait. Right now he had to wait and learn how this machine was constructed so that it could perform a higher cause, restoring Unicron's presence to this dimension and continuing the struggle between order and chaos.

--

"What was that?" Scourge stood from his command chair. "Report! Why did the power levels of this ship drop?"

Soundwave punched keys on the terminal to get an image in the only to get static and various nonsensical readings, no doubt some sort of feed back from the machine's activation. Something was interfering with the internal surveillance systems but from what he could tell that there was something wrong in the cargo hold where the temporal displacement was being housed. No doubt it was because of this dimension's Megatron summoning some new warriors to battle. Soundwave saw no reason to report to report this to Scourge, after all this could work to his advantage.

"The fuel reserves are far more depleted than previously indicated Lord Scourge." Soundwave then began to make some pretend calculations using the ship's computer. "We should recall our troops with whatever fuel they have collected. If our systems power down then we will be helpless to repel an attack."

Scourge growled and slammed his fist on the arm of his command chair. "Slag it all... Call back the troops. We will have to accelerate our plans."

"Affirmative," Soundwave activated the decepticon comm. channel, "All decepticons return to the Atlantis at once, circumstances have forced us to change plans. Return with all the fuel that you can carry."

--

"Bah! What a spoilsport," Kickback snorted, transforming and knocking down the tree he had been chewing on. "and we were just starting to have some fun."

"Yes, but this place isn't what I'd like to be stuck on for a few hundred stellar cycles. Recall our 'friends' and let's get back to the ship, ship." Shrapnel said, transforming to his insect mode. "Is your new toy ready for a tip Bombshell, Bombshell?"

Shrapnel was referring to the large dragon transformer that was staring into space with a distant, mindless look in his eyes and a small hole in his forehead.

"He's as docile as an empty who's on his last drop of energon." Bombshell cackled, taking pride in all his work. Seeing his Cerebro shells perform their work overwriting a transformer's higher neural functions always felt the insecticon feeling very significant.

"I'll go make sure the terrorcons to return the ship, you two take our new slave along for the ride, ride..." Shrapnel ordered before flying off towards where the terrorcons had last been sighted.

Bombshell and Kickback looked at each other and grinned, the dragon had been such a proud warrior and now he was nothing but cannon fodder for their next battle. Each decepticon took one of Scourge's arms as they flew straight up towards the Atlantis.

--

"Commanders! We have a signal!" Perceptor shouted from his improvised work station near Wheeljack's contraption.

"Excellent. Activate the device at once!" Megatron demanded.

"With pleasure!" Mixmaster cackled as he flipped the switch.

The supposed solar collector hummed to life as a gaping multicolored hole in time and space appeared. Large enough for two transformers to walk in side by side.

Perceptor gaped as he watched the readings on a hand held scanning device he had brought, the level of energy this thing was beginning to give out was incredible! How did Wheeljack come up with such a device?

"I have no idea where we will end up sirs, I apologize but there's no way to tell if we be able to recover you with this contraption." Perceptor said, "I don't think we should send more than ten transformers."

"You have a point, Megatron I think we should restrict our numbers and only bring a few transformers with us." Optimus Prime said as he turned to the decepticon commander.

"Agreed, Contructicons remain here and guard the device. Knowing Starscream he may try something while I am away." Megatron turned to his other soldiers; "Combaticons prepare for departure, you will follow after myself and Prime enter the portal."

"Bumblebee, Grimlock, you two will come with me." Optimus said, turning to his troops who nodded in understanding. "Perceptor I want this device analyzed until you can discover a return command."

"Understood Prime." Perceptor responded, getting to work at once.

"Ready Prime?" Megatron asked, taking point at the portal. He wanted to be the first to wring Scourge's neck before he melted him down for aluminum siding.

Optimus Prime nodded. "Yes, now let's get going!"

Both teams lined up two by two and took their first steps into the unknown, it was time to find out what Scourge was up to.

--

To be continued.

--

Sorry for the long delay, far too many projects at once. I hope I haven't forgotten any thing from the last few chapters, it's been a while. It's short and kinda choppy, but that's because it's taken me so long to get back in the saddle. But getting the transformers cybertron DVDs helped get me remotivated. Next chapter will be better, it's just so much had to happen in this one to get things moving.

GrimlockX4 - Yeap. The Fallen is going to have some fun wrecking the place.

dark knight vergil - I think this chapter answers you 'when are the G1 characters coming in', and hell yeah I know who the Fallen is. He's one of my favorite TF characters. The image on my author page is a repainted version of the Fallen.

tomorrow4eva - I know, I was in a hurry to get it up and that was a quick addition to the chapter, I fixed that. But the Fallen should provide some good entertainment

SpartanCommander - Don't worry, chaos always finds a way. But I don't think I'll be using Bludgeon or the planet x guys.


	20. G1tastic!

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 20

---

Signallancer(1) leaned against the new conference table that had been brought in to replace the one that had been destroyed less than a solar cycle ago. He was thankful for Quickmix's help in carrying it in but he wished he had stayed to help polish it to a mirror shine.

The autobot took a moment to take some pride in his work before turning to report that to Jetfire that the conference room was back in working order when a powerful wind nearly knocked the Signallancer off his feet followed by two loud 'crunches.' Whirling his head a whole one hundred and eighty degrees to see the table he had worked so hard to polish was now shattered to splinters under the weight of two large transformers.

Both were tall and carried plasma blasters but that was where the similarities ended. One of them looked very much like Optimus Prime, but his frame was less bulky and he wore a complete face plate while the other was colored with a camouflage paint scheme bearing the decepticon emblem. These two transformers stepped aside as more transformers dropped down, further reducing the table to a pile of debris.

Franticly Signallancer activated his communicator, "Um, Jetfire I think you need to come down here... and you may want to bring some backup."

---

Jetfire was not far from the conference hall over seeing preparations for a new energon generator to help increase fuel supply for the sector when he suddenly he got a transmission from one of the civilian autobots from earth.

"Signallancer right? Calm down, what's the problem?" Jetfire asked calmly, expecting the civilian 'bot to be fretting over some minor detail and thinking himself in big trouble.

"We have decepticons in the conference room! A whole bunch of them!" Signallancer screeched over the comm. channel, followed by a weak gasp for air and a faint sound of straining metal.

"Tell me autobot, where is Scourge?"

Jetfire wasted no time in transforming and heading in the direction of the conference hall. "Metroplex, we have some intruders in the conference room ┘ again┘ and I need some backup."

"Oi, again? Fine I'll get some revenge for making such a horrible mess for me an' my boys to clean up!" Metroplex radioed in, the massive transformer shifted to his vehicle mode and rolled towards the conference hall.

---

"I told you I don't know anything! I don't know where Scourge is!" Signallancer screamed, now being dangled by his foot. He had been shaken, shouted at, and threatened by this decepticon and if he had known where Scourge was Signallancer would have told him in the beginning, he wasn't as brave as liked to pretend to be.

"That's enough, he's scared out of his wits Megatron." Optimus said, appreciating Megatron's enthusiasm but not his method of extracting information. "I know you are angry but we should consult someone else."

With a snort Megatron dropped the terrified autobot and watched as he sprinted away towards the exit. Deeming the autobot of no importance, Megatron turned to his Combaticon team. "Alright, our mission is to find Scourge but I want him alive... for now anyway. Is that clear?"

The five Combaticons nodded or spoke their affirmative, they were all ready to fight even if it was against a former comrade.

Optimus meanwhile was inspecting his own troops, namely Grimlock and Bumblebee (2). "We're here to retrieve Jazz, Hound, Eject, and Steelburst. If possible I'd prefer to remain on the good side of the natives of this world. There's only nine of us after all."

"Agreed Prime." Megatron said, looking over at Brawl who was the biggest concern in that department. "There is to be no fighting unless I order so understood brawl?"

"Yes sir!" Brawl shouted, his armor rattling as he moved to salute.

"Hold it right there!" Came a loud and vaguely Australian accented shout as a green and white autobot landed in front of the group. "Now who are you?"

He was followed shortly by an enormous construction vehicle that surprisingly transformed into a gestalt sized transformer holding a large axe with a saw like head.

Jetfire was at a loss for words when he began to analyze these bots that had caused Signallancer to be outside cowering inside the entrance of a nearby energon bar. One of them resembled Optimus Prime, but there were subtle differences that told him that this was not the leader he had known for nearly all his days. There was a knee high gold autobot that he did not recognize and the other autobot who was holding an energon sword certainly did not look very friendly.

The other six all wore the decepticon brand and had instantly gotten Jetfire on the defensive, but why were these autobots here with these decepticons unless...

"You wouldn't know a few bots by the name of Jazz an' Hound would you?" Jetfire asked pointedly.

"Yeah, and you are?" Bumblebee asked, not sure if it was a good idea to trust this bot, even if he was wearing the Autobot crest.

"Jetfire, Optimus Prime er... our Optimus Prime left me in charge of Cybertron while he and your friends are out stopping Scourge."

"So you know where that traitor is?" Megatron spoke, his grip on his blaster tightening in anticipation.

"Your friend Eject explained your history, so I guess I know why you brought decepticons... but many others may not understand." Jetfire warned, he didn't like the idea either but at this point the decepticons outnumbered the autobots.

"We will not step down if any one autobot should stand in our way." Onslaught snorted resentfully, much to the agreement of his fellow Combaticons. "We have a truce with the autobots from our dimension. These ones are fair game."

"If you want a fight ya wee decepticon trash then ya'll have it." Metroplex bellowed, slinging his axe on his shoulder and giving the smaller transformers a nasty glare.

"Enough!" Megatron snarled, giving Onslaught a jab in the chest to make sure that the point was clear. "Our fight is with Scourge, not these Autobots or their enemies. Is that clear Onslaught?"

"S-Sure thing Megatron!" Onslaught stuttered, looking back to his team for support but found them all adverting their gazes and attempting to look innocent. He'd get them for that later.

Jetfire winced, this transformer standing in front of him was their Megatron? At least this one seemed to be capable of handling his own troops and seemed much less power hungry. Of course these were just first impressions, if this Megatron proved to be anything like the Megatron that he knew he'd put him down at the first opportunity.

"Where are our troops currently?" Optimus asked, wanting to get back on track. The autobot commander felt he had no business interfering with this time stream, the vast losses he had seen and suffered through in his battles with Jhiaxus's Cybertronian troops had the autobot commander much more hesitant to be drawn into another conflict with a new enemy.

"Currently they're engaging in a disturbance on Jungle planet. An army of mechanical insects have been sighted devouring everything in sight and the transformers there are in a heap of trouble." Jetfire explained, "Scourge has already hit a mining world and stolen some crystals for unknown purposes and he's also assaulted Velocitron, we just finished repair issues from that monster Abominus popping out of nowhere."

The Combaticons looked at each other, there was no doubt that they would have to be the ones to takes that mindless mechanical terror. It would be a hard job but they were confidant that their combined form could go toe to toe with Abominus, leaving Scourge to the commanders.

"Perhaps we should fill you in on what all's happened here since this all began." Jetfire said, beginning the tale from the moment when Steelburst landed on the conference table and the following battle that turned a meeting to ensure peace to a full scaled brawl.

"So Scourge stole one of your ships and you've been chasing him from world to world." Megatron said after hearing the abridged version of current events. "I have say that doesn't say much for these autobots. Regardless Scourge can't possibly be doing all this by random. He must have something important enough to cross dimensions, start all this trouble, and to get on my bad side."

Optimus shook his head, was Megatron trying to get on these autobot's bad side?

"We just going to stand around talking or we going to go looking for Scourge?" Grimlock grumbled, having been bored since Jetfire began his tale. "You have an extra ship or not?"

"Well, uh, yeah..." Jetfire began, "We have the Lemuria, the ship from Gigantion we could use that if Metroplex allows it."

"Aye, you can use it so long as ya bring it back." Metroplex said, he was loathe to let anything that belonged to his planet be used by decepticons but if it would help stop the destruction then he would allow it this once.

"Good. Would you mind leading us there?" Bumblebee asked, sounding just as eager as ever.

"Follow me." Jetfire said as he turned to lead them out, he was as good as any to provide escort to the hangar bay and to make sure that no one would try to start something with Megatron and his five underlings.

Outside they could all see Signallancer peeping out from the energon bar across the street, who instantly ducked inside once he laid his optics on Megatron. Along the way the group was the focus of anyone who was within visual range, some sunk back to cover in case of suddenly being attacked by decepticons, while others cast hateful glares. Still, just as many thought that the Optimus Prime that walked with the group looked somehow... off.

The Combaticons were annoyed at the constant muttering they could hear around them but they held their tongues. While these autobot civilians were weaklings there were far more of them than they could count and they were also without support since they were in another reality. There was no way they could take a whole planet on their own even with Megatron and their autobot comrades.

Grimlock was almost as edgy, he had hoped this would be a short trip and a big fight with Scourge but at least things were going smoothly. Still a fight with that large 'bot they called Metroplex would have been for some good fun.

"Well Prime, what do you think of this dimension?" Megatron asked plainly.

"By the number of autobots I'd have to say in this dimension that their decepticons no longer inhabit Cybertron." Optimus looked to his right to notice a few well militaristic autobots glare at Megatron, "From their reaction to you I'd say it's little different than how we were before we learned of our greater enemy."

"So it would seem," Megatron said, sneering a little at all the gawking. "There's no equality here, it would seem the autobots were the victors here."

Optimus sighed and nodded in agreement. "Perhaps, but if there's one thing I have learned is that the fight is never truly over Megatron."

Jetfire stopped their march to look up into the sky, something was coming out of transwarp space into orbit.

---

To be continued.

---

(1) Remember that stoplight autobot? From what wikipedia tells me that's what his name is. I know he only makes it back to Cybertron to go out with the others in the last episode.

(2) Okay, I honestly don't remember seeing BB or Goldbug in G2 but according to the transformers wiki he did appear early on and apparently survived to the end of the comics. I'm also aware that the Combaticons were all destroyed by Starscream and some of Jhiaxus's troops but I wanted to bring them in.

AN: Yeah I left it at kind of a cliff hanger but I needed to update before everyone started asking if I had put this fic on hold again.

FTKnight - That would be going a little far but that could happen.

Meirelle - When is Megatron ever happy? XD

GrimlockX4 - the power rangers, Beast wars AND the fallen? You do know just how powerful the fallen is right? As in TF fans on seibertron dot com vote for the fallen when he's fighting both megatron AND Optimus Prime?

Spartancomannder - The Omegalock is hooked into the temporal displacement device, I would think it takes an incomprehensible amount of power to pierce the time-space barrier. Soundwave was just bullsh-ting Scourge into calling back their forces. But what I have in mind for the Fallen may surprise you.

tomorrow4eva - Yeah, the one where Lori and Jetfire take her down? I love how Scourge cowered before the two females.

firebird234 - I imagine the Primes getting along, but not understanding some minor details about each other.

dark knight vergil - Sorry, I'm not bringing in anyone else for now, too many characters are active right now and I need to start limiting a chapter to one storyline a chapter so that I don't have to split up chapters any more.


	21. The gathering storm

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 21

---

On the Jungle planet the autobots had all returned to the Ogygia, the damage to the Jungle planet was just as bad as Velocitron, although if the the bots of speed planet were there they would no doubt disagree. Everywhere the Insecticons had landed they had gorged themselves on anything they could find.

On the top of the Ark's hull stood Backstop, Snarl, and Undermine of Jungle planet along side Hotshot and Redalert who had gathered to watch the decepticons as they swarmed back to the Ark that was hovering above them.

"Looks like the decepticons are bugging out," Snarl said, "Good riddance, they've done enough damage to our world."

Undermine however was not so content, "Why don't we just blow them out of the sky? We have the opportunity and the armament? They need to pay for what they've done."

"That would a good idea unless you want to destroy Scourge in the process." The short yet wise Backstop said in his usual sage like tone. "While doing my best to defend the jungles I happened to notice several of the invaders carrying Scourge with them towards their ship."

"Great, now the decepticons have a hostage." Redalert groaned, putting a hand over his head. "What else can complicate things further?"

"Incoming!" Brimstone screeched as he nearly landed on Backstop. It had not been intentional, it was just Backstop was almost unnoticeable when he stood next to the other autobots. Regardless, the pteranodon gave his scouting report on the aftermath of the attack. "The forests have been completely trashed, many of the trees were knocked over with only have a few bites taken out of them while others look like they were ground to bits." Brimstone snarled, "if they were here for much longer there may have been no vegetation left on the planet."

"How horrible..." Lori said, "If the forests here are anything like the ones on Earth then it will take decades to look like it used to..."

The entire group turned to see Lori walking towards them. They were all well versed in Lori's temper but thankfully she seemed more irritated than angry at them.

"Something wrong?" Hotshot asked bravely, after all he hadn't done anything wrong or so he believed.

"It's Thunderblast," Lori grumbled, crossing her arms. "She's started talking through Steelburst and she wants back in her body." She then turned to Redalert, "Redalert can you do something to shut her mouth?"

Redalert shrugged, "Well I could put her in stasis lock when I restore her spark... and keep her offline until this whole affair is over with."

Lori grinned at the idea of having that decepti-bimbo quiet for the rest of this mission. Despite being tiny compared to the giant robots, Lori still managed to seem scary as she smiled like that and wrung her hands together.

"Isn't Thunderblast the name of that decepticon femme?" Undermine asked plainly.

"It's a long and very weird story..." Hotshot said as he began to explain the whole tale to the beast 'bots.

---

"Well?" 'Thunderblast' said as she tapped 'her' foot impatiently. Presently she was still in control of Steelburst's body, who she claimed had stepped down for a little while. "How much longer?"

"I said just a moment," Redalert grumbled, he was quickly loosing his cool thanks to this annoying decepticon femme and all her irritating questions. Why didn't anyone besides Coby understand that delicate work like this took time?

"I mean, Steelburst just ripped my spark core out and hooked it up with no tools, why would this take anything more than the same treatment?" Thunderblast asked, surprising herself that she was talking highly of the co-owner of this body she had to share. "You're very lucky that worked at all." Redalert said, "If he had made a single mistake with handling your spark core your spark would have been destroyed. More over he could have improperly installed your spark core and offlined you. Personally I don't know how you survived at all."

Thunderblast winced, it hadn't occurred to her to check if Steelburst had actually known what to do when he tore out her spark core. Upon wondering that she felt that Steelburst had done that totally on impulse. It really was a miracle that she lived, but she could tell he was glad that she had lived.

"Whatever," Thunderblast snorted, she didn't care about what happened on the mining world she just wanted to be back in her own body. "Just get to work separating us... Having Steelburst as a constant companion isn't very fun."

Redalert muttered to himself, perhaps it was unethical for a medical expert to want to keep his patient offline but at least it keep her quiet until they could get her to a detention cell where she wouldn't be causing any more trouble for a long time.

As 'Thunderblast' laid down on the table Redalert began the spark transfer.

---

Optimus Prime stood on the bridge of the Ogygia watching as stars and their resident planets shot past them so fast they were nothing more than bright colorful blurs. Optimus wished he could take in the majesty of the moment but the situation was too dire and the destruction he had seen too wide spread. He wanted this to be over with. He had expected the fighting to be done with when Megatron was destroyed, for it to continue made his processor heavy. He hated to just pick up and leave Jungle planet without making sure that the people would be okay but they were a hardy race of transformers, he was certain they could hold out for a while.

"Hotshot, do you have a moment?" Optimus asked, breaking the hanging silence that hung in the bridge.

"It's the children, I hate to go into any battle without you but I must order you to take charge of them and ensure that no harm comes to them."

"I understand big bot." Hotshot said, although he wanted to fight more decepticons he knew Optimus enough to know that this was a sign of trust to be entrusted with the human's care. They had been an immeasurable help to the autobots and if any harm came to them Hotshot did not know what he may do. Much worse he would have to be the 'bot who would have to explain to their parents why their children were hurt in an interstellar war.

Optimus Prime nodded, glad that Hotshot wasn't going to give him any complaints. If Scourge was now engaged in combat on Cybertron the destruction could spread to Earth or Gigantion unless this mad man was stopped.

"Jazz, can you send a signal to Cybertron," Optimus ordered. "we're on our way home. Tell Jetfire to prepare for a full scale assault from the decepticons. Every second counts."

"Will do Prime." Jazz said coolly, already sending the message and broadcasting it faster than even they were traveling.

"We just got a message from Override," Hound said, "Some of the giant 'bots are already there and beginning repairs. But more importantly they're getting all those civilians back up and running around. Hope they like off-roading it for a while."

Finally a ray of light in this dark hour. Optimus chuckled heartily but it was a passing feeling, unless this ended soon there could be far worse battlefields.

"Optimus we're getting a transmission." Hotshot said, "It says that Megatron and a group of decepticons are on Cybertron and unless I'm reading this wrong it says you're there too."

"I think that message must be garbled." Optimus said, "We must be getting some interference. It doesn't matter, hopefully we'll get to Cybertron to clear everything up."

---

On board the Ark Scourge was now looking down on Cybertron, he had come full circle but once he landed on one of Cybertron's moons and dumped all of the ship's power into the temporal displacement device he would bring an army of decepticons to this dimension. A whole universe would fall under decepticon rule, his rule... the thought made the Unicron-constructed decepticon grin wickedly. He'd keep the autobots alive for a while at least, every good soldier needs target practice.

"Soundwave, patch me into the ships PA system. I want to address our troops." Scourge ordered.

Soundwave wordlessly complied and activated the PA system, patching Scourge's own communication signal to the ship's.

"Insecticons, your copies have served me well." Scourge's voice boomed all over the ship. "If not for their ability to process matter into fuel I would have relegated them to simple cannon fodder but they've managed to refuel the Ark with all that we will need."

Nearly instantly Scourge saw Shrapnel, or perhaps one of his many copies enter the control room of the Atlantis and he did not look pleased at all, having not liked the tone of Scourge's voice at all. "Whatever, care to tell what our next move is? Move is..."

"Simple my Insecticon friend, you and the others will invade and conquer Cybertron while I hold back with the Ark." Scourge toted smugly. "If you are destroyed in battle I will use our little toy to bring you back and maybe a few other allies to help as well."

Shrapnel gritted his teeth and nodded, "Fine, but afterwards I expect to be compensated in energon."

"Of course Shrapnel, now go and prepare your troops." Scourge said, sounding as convincing and humble as he could.

The Insecticon leader left the bridge in silence, that was until he was far enough down the halls that he was certain that his growls would not be heard. He wasn't stupid, no matter how much Scourge praised his acting skills he couldn't fool an Insecticon that easily. If he was destroyed Scourge wasn't going to bring him back, he knew because if he was in Scourge's position that's exactly what he would do.

"It seems you aren't happy with Scourge's type of leadership." Soundwave said, appearing from the shadows. "How would you like to help me with my plan?"

It didn't take Shrapnel a second to decide; "If it means getting that blow hard out of the command chair then I'm all for it. Where to we begin? Begin..."

---

Elsewhere on the Ark Megatron had recovered from his encounter with the Fallen and now found himself among the countless mute copies of the Insecticons who were staring at him blankly as he passed them by. It was quite unnerving but it was nothing he could not handle.

Finally Megatron came across the medical bay where he discovered Ransack, Crumplezone, and Thundercracker who had apparently been hiding here for some time.

"What are you three doing in here?" Megatron growled, not happy with the lack of respect he had been getting as of late.

"Hey, those blasted Terrorcons tore me up pretty bad! I'm stayin' faaar away from those monsters." Thundercracker snorted.

"Be quiet, you will show me the respect I deserve or I will reduce you to molten slag you useless-" Megatron would have continued when he heard the ping of an incoming transmission coming from the nearby terminal.

Before anyone could react Soundwave's expressionless face appeared on the screen. "Megatron, I suspect you were responsible for that power drain we detected earlier?"

"Perhaps, what does Scourge know?"

"He believes that it was a fuel drain caused by our past usage of the temporal displacement device. If I had not jettisoned a large portion of our energon supplies he would have known instantly that you were responsible." Soundwave said, his red optics narrowing. If Scourge had not gone out to visit with Terrorcons and ensure they weren't going to eat the ship before the battle began he would not be speaking out loud. "Now who did you bring to the ship?"

"I have never met him before, can you do a ship wide scan for intruders?" Megatron snorted, crossing his arms in annoyance.

Soundwave clicked few keys on his end and within a minute he had his answer. "I detect no unknown energy signatures on board the ship."

"Our intruder mentioned something about taking the device outside to the hull." Megatron muttered, "He referred to himself as the Fallen, does that name mean anything to you?"

Soundwave tapped more buttons, now making a detailed short wave scan of the ship. "The name is unfamiliar but I believe I have found him. I do not know how he managed to stay with us when we made our transwarp jump but he's definitely there. Did he say what he wanted to do out there?"

"He was spouting some nonsense about Unicron." Megatron said, "I wouldn't worry, the way it was described to me only those connected by the matrix, and Unicron does not happen to be tied to Primus in anyway."

Soundwave leaned a little to the side to look behind Megatron, he could see that Thundercracker and Ransack were behind him and they seemed to have become nervous at the mention of the chaos bringer's name. Understandable, but pointless. "You perceive the facts correctly, there's simply no way for this transformer to bring Unicron back."

"Still, I believe we should do something about this... Fallen, as he calls himself. He could become a problem for our plans." Megatron said, he desired to be rid of this ancient transformer as quickly as possible. The amount of power that transformer possessed was... infuriating to someone like Megatron.

"Why?" Soundwave mused. "When he could be useful as a distraction for what I have in mind. Prepare for battle against the autobots, Scourge will be staying behind to guard the Temporal Displacement device but I feel this 'Fallen' could serve as a distraction for when we make our move."

"True, but removing him when he is no longer useful will be a problem. His power is unlike any I've ever encountered." Megatron frowned, "Is it possible to send him back to where ever he came from?"

"Of course. Scourge will be returning to the bridge soon. I must break contact." Soundwave said before his expressionless face vanished from the display screen.

Soundwave muttered, "This is getting out of hand. How am I going to get all of these fools under control?"

"Hey Soundwave we got some good news for ya." Rumble called over to the communications officer, "It's him. Megatron, OUR Megatron!"

Soundwave chuckled, everything was finally coming into place.

---

To be continued.

---

AN: Arrgh... I hate having such a long pause in between updates but with the holidays and fable two my freetime's been pretty much been nonexistent. Hope this is okay as a holiday present.

SpartanCommander - Since the cybertronian troops don't take prisoners I'd have to wager that the Combaticons were destroyed. But let's say they were damaged but they were repairable.

GrimlockX4 - Powerful enough, he took out grimlock one on one with no trouble at all and broke into an autobot prison to kidnap Blitzwing and suffered no damage at all. It's not that he wasn't shot, it's that it didn't seem to hurt him. He even grabbed the blade of Grimlock's energon sword bare handed with no damage done to him. It took an awakened and very grumpy Primus to destroy the Fallen. Know that "the fallen" isn't his real name, it's all we have to go on.

Meirelle - Aft has not been kicked unless Megatron does the kicking.

dark knight vergil - The idea has been put into consideration. :)


	22. To storm the moon

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 22

---

"Decepticons! Attack!" Megatron screamed as he pointed up towards the descending Insecticon hordes and opened fire.

The Combaticons needed little more incentive than that to enter the fire fight, and one where there was so many targets it was impossible to miss was better than the promise of enriched energon to the Combaticons. Bolts of energy shot from their weapons as they picked off more and more of the nasty bugs, getting only sparse support from the autobot civilians.

Optimus Prime, Grimlock, and Bumblebee were doing their best but the sheer numbers were staggering. But thankfully the swarm seemed to understand the risks of trying to attack this area and as quickly they appeared they disappeared.

"What happened sir?" Brawl bellowed, "Where did they go?"

Megatron frowned and looked around at the broken and gooey carapaces of the Insecticon drones, "It seems even drones have the capacity to know when to pull back when there are easier places to attack."

"So it seem." Grimlock said, "But what we do now?" (1)

"We contact the other allies we have and hope they can make in time to be of help." Jetfire said, hoping he wasn't over stepping his bounds with two superior officers present.

"Something tells me that isn't an issue." Megatron said. "Those traitors are obviously using these disgusting drones to distract us."

"How do you figure that?" Jetfire asked.

"Think about it autobot," Brawl grunted, "If you had a large army like Scourge had would you waste them in an uncoordinated battle against an entire planet?"

"Scourge was never one to plan ahead. His arrogance may be getting the better of him." Vortex said, "Of course that's just my opinion."

"That may be so Vortex," Megatron said, "But Scourge is not stupid enough to go through all this trouble just to pointlessly waste troops."

"Regardless Megatron, Scourge must have a base where he is housing his main fight force." Optimus Prime said, "If we could mount a distraction of our own and attack it we could cut off his supply of troops and end this."

Jetfire was stunned how quickly these otherworldly transformers had analyzed the situation and come up with a plan that sounded like it could win the fight easily. They must have seen an incredible amount of battles to have so much experience, if they had been on their side against their Megatron there was no doubt the fight would have ended on Earth before they even traveled to Velocitron.

"Well er, commanders I suppose technically you both outrank me." Jetfire said, yielding to these more experienced transformers. "What would you suggest us to do?"

Vortex crossed his arms. "If those civilians are all you have then we would be better off on our own."

Grimlock nodded in agreement but kept silent, he felt there was no need to agitate Jetfire any more than necessary.

"I hate to agree with Vortex but he has a point." Bumblebee said, "These civilians would be more trouble then their worth in a firefight."

Optimus Prime turned to Jetfire, "Have whoever you have in communications tell the civilians to take cover and prepare to defend themselves if need be. What kind of automated defenses do you have?"

"Few, we have only what was repaired after our battle with Galvatron." Jetfire felt a little strange bringing that name up when conversing with Megatron nearby, no matter if it was the decepticon he had come to hate or not. "Thankfully he's no longer an issue, and the decepticons of our reality are pathetic compared to the ones from your dimension."

Megatron gritted his teeth, it had not been long enough to weather the memory of his past insanity. Still, reminding himself that this was not in fact the Galvatron he had once been did little to soften the memory of what Unicron warped him into long ago.

"So your Prime beat your Galvatron eh?" Grimlock said, kinda wishing he could have seen the battle thinking it had to be on par with the fight at Autobot City. (2)

"Yeah, the braggart used some of the spark of Primus to make himself gigantic and then tried to destroy our entire galaxy including his own forces, using a black hole created when we destroyed Unicron." Jetfire explained, "Thankfully we stopped him before he could destroy any inhabited planets. He ended up on one of Cybertron's moons where he and our Optimus finally put an end to him."

"Destroying everything and his own troops?" Blastoff chuckled, "Sounds like a regular megalomaniac to me."

"Takes one to know one Blastoff." Swindle snorted, "So we need to have our own distraction and the location of where Scourge is holed up.

"Hold on, I'll contact our top science bot." Jetfire said as he activated his radio. "Hopefully the science center is undamaged."

---

Scattershot was having a hard time listening to the huge amount of frantic cries for help from civilian autobots. With the attack from the Insecticon drones he almost wished for the Scrapmetals were back, at least he knew what to do in case they attacked.

"Scattershot, come in." Jetfire's voice came over the comm. system, "I need you to do a long range scan to find where these things are coming from."

"I just had to go out and shoot some of those bug things off the sensor relay Jetfire," Scattershot said as he began the process of scanning the area of space around Cybertron. Scattershot was surprised that he found the source of these drones in only a matter of minutes, just the luck of the draw as humans say he guessed. "Well, they seem to be coming from Cybertron's closest moon."

"So they've landed on the moon... do we have any ships?" Jetfire asked, hoping that the Gigantion transformers would not object to them barrowing their ship the Lemuria.

"Negative, from the reports I've been getting the Lemuria's currently under attack and being devoured by these drones." Scattershot said, "The Gigantions are trying to fight them off but they had already hollowed out one the engines by the time they noticed them. To make matters worse most of our space bridge applications are still off line."

---

Jetfire grumbled, "Great, unless the commander gets back soon we're just going to have to bare this attack."

Bumblebee turned to the Combaticons, "You think you could fly us there Blastoff?"

"Do you take me for that uncouth transport Astrotrain?" Blastoff snorted, seemingly very offended. "I have the thrust to get myself and one other out of orbit, two perhaps but beyond that I can't help you."

"Hey just asking is all..." Bumblebee said, hoping he hadn't offended the uptight decepticon too much.

"In that case Jetfire I have some good news for you," Scattershot said, glad that Jetfire hadn't turned off his communicator systems, "because according to the scanners he and the Ogygia are only about five minutes away."

"Finally, some good news." Jetfire said, "Contact him and let him know of the plan, the sooner this is over with the better."

"On it." Scattershot replied over Jetfire's communicator.

---

"Optimus, we're getting a reply transmission from Scattershot." Hotshot said, "He says a full scale assault is impossible, Scourge's forces are already attacking Cybertron and they're having a hard time fighting them off."

"Is there any good news?" Hound asked, skeptical that there would be any. There rarely ever was.

"They have the location of the Atlantis," Hotshot continued, "it's landed on Cybertron's closest moon. The problem is that these things called Insecticons have already destroyed the engines on the Gigantion ship. So if we want to stop this here and now we have to go straight to the moon."

"What's the plan boss?" Leobreaker asked, "I mean, once the decepticons see us coming they may just take off."

"That would mean leaving their forces to fend for themselves." Hotshot said.

"You think Scourge cares about his men?" Jazz replied coolly.

"Right, so we're not going to land on the moon." Optimus said to the surprise of his crew, but the bigger surprise was let to come. "We're going to crash the Ogygia into the Atlantis, that way there's no escape."

"Isn't that a risky maneuver sir?" Hotshot said, "What about the children?"

"I never intended to crash the ship with anyone inside it Hotshot." Optimus said with a hint of mirth in his voice processor, "We're going to set the ship on autopilot and have it smash into the bridge of the Atlantis, while we hold back and come down afterwards."

"I get it," Jazz said, nodding in understanding, "we're going to kamikaze the ship so they can't run away then drop in and finish them off."

"So what do we do with the kids?" Leobreaker asked, "We can't take them into battle."

"I thought about that," Optimus said his expression somehow seeming a little more grim. "It's a long shot but it's the only strong tactical decision I can come to. Is Steelburst fully functional?"

---

Steelburst groaned as Redalert reactivated him, once more the mentally damaged autobot stood off his examination table and looked around. He still seemed to be as strange as ever but Redalert could only repair his body.

Looking down at the deactivated body of Thunderblast Steelburst couldn't help but feel very alone, she had been the first onboard companion since his headmaster partner was taken from him by the Swarm. But somehow seeing the human children seemed to comfort him in some small way.

"Well how do you feel Steelburst?" Coby asked brightly, smiling up at the black and green autobot.

Steelburst seemed to shrug then pointed to Thunderblast who was still lying on the adjacent table.

"Optimus ordered me to keep her in stasis lock until something can be done with her." Redalert said calmly, hoping he didn't come off as unfeeling. "She's alright so don't worry."

Steelburst nodded and walked silently towards the door, only to be stopped by Bud. "Hey why are you always so mopey!"

"Bud be considerate," Lori snapped, grabbing Bud by the back of the neck and shaking him, "What if we lost Jolt or Optimus? You'd be just as distant as he is."

"I know Lori," Bud said, "I'm just trying to get him out of his funk of his."

"It's nice of you to try Bud but just give him time." Lori said, "Just leave him be."

Steelburst carefully stepped over the pair and continued for the door, only to be stopped again by someone he couldn't step over.

"Steelburst," Optimus said, "I have a mission for you."

The stealth jet cocked his head, he hadn't been given a mission in a very long time. "What kind of mission?"

"We're going to have to crash the ship on the moon and I need someone who can fly to take the children to safety on one of the nearby moons." Optimus said, "I need you to keep the children safe."

If it had been anything else, Steelburst would not have cared for more than a nanosecond but safeguarding the human children was perhaps the one thing he could still devote himself to. After all the time the kids had spent around him talking to him it was the least he could do. But even still all that Optimus got out of him was a nod.

To the children the stealth fighter said; "Get ready."

"Alright Coby," Lori said in a demanding tone, "Unless you want the three of us to cram into Steelburst's cockpit I suggest you get your robot."

Coby agreed and went to fetch the Cobybot from the cargo bay, hoping that it had aired out some from Bud's incident in it earlier.

---

Soundwave sighed in relief at the sight of Megatron, his Megatron on the monitor. This meant that his employment for Scourge had come to an end and that his plans could continue without needing to depend on that arrogant tin bot. But this would cause more problems, while now his plan to rope control of the decepticons away from Scourge was no longer a viable idea he had no question that many of the troops they had would not welcome working for the decepticon commander again.

The Stunticons were still infuriated for being locked away in the autobot's prison for recklessly endangering civilians and the Terrorcons would side with whoever had the larger show of force. Then there was the native decepticons, judging from the way their Megatron behaved he would never take orders, even from another version of himself. Everyone else they had in their ranks was already irate because of Scourge's behavior and may side with the commander if pressed.

Then there was what the native Megatron said, about that 'Fallen' creature. It bothered Soundwave that he could not detect any sort of alien energy signature in the ship or even outside. It was very possible that the native Megatron was merely making the story up, but for what purpose?

Shoving the idea out of his mind Soundwave pointed the Atlantis's communication array towards Cybertron, it was time to play his hand.

---

On the surface of the moon not far from the Atlantis stood The Fallen, the first and most powerful servant of the chaos bringer. He was now visually double checking the relays of the hastily relocated Time Displacement machine as well as preparing himself for the first time seeing his master for what had seemed to be an eternity.

Satisfied with his work, The Fallen began to modify the machine to pull Unicron through time and space to this world. It was clear that the one who designed this machine did not have the chaos bringer in mind. But unknown to most there was a link between Primus and Unicron, an intertwining fate that would never let either of them find true peace. It was that connection The Fallen would use, finally vengeance would be his, he would strike back at his creator just as he had during the dark ages of Cybertron. Finally he would have his reward promised to him so long ago. (3)

---

To be continued.

---

(1) I know G2 Grimlock didn't always talk like this, but it's what I'm familiar with concerning the way Grimlock talks. Too much of the G1 cartoon I guess.

(2) Heh, in my opinion there's no comparison. The G1 fight was WAAAY better, but Grimlock doesn't know that.

(3) Okay the idea of a reward and vengeance is totally my idea but it does give the fallen a little more depth. After all so little is known about him.

AN: I think in the past chapters I've mixed up Rewind with Eject, if I have I can't say how shamed this makes me as a TF fan. Eject is a sports fanatic, while Rewind is the information junkie.

GrimlockX4 - The thing is; it's hard to gauge the Fallen by any true standards because he never fought much. He never fought Prime or Megatron, never had a big fight scene, and he just plowed through the lesser bots until Primus blew him to dust.

dark knight vergil - That's nothing, in the last few comics he actually shows a sense of humor. Optimus actually tells him he shouldn't joke about some things. XD

tomorrow4eva - Glad ya enjoyed it.

Meirelle - Author give chapter! Author want cookie!

SpartanCommander - Yeah, I remember how Grimlock got his team captured and the time before that. But as for the Minicons fighting the cassettes, the Minicons don't seem the fighting type. They're usually running away from battle.


	23. Closer and closer

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 23

* * *

Lori held onto the sides of the Cobybot's cockpit as she and Coby were dragged through the blackness of space by Steelburst. She was grateful the Minicons were coming along for this flight to a safe distance away from the moon, she may like to get her hands dirty but even she knew when she'd be more of a hindrance than help. What Lori didn't like was how Steelburst had convinced Redalert and Optimus to allow him to attach cables to Thunderblast and tow her out of danger too. As far as Lori was concerned the decepti-witch could've just crashed and burned with the ship. But at least she wasn't riding in Steelburst's cockpit with Bud.

Bud on the other hand was having a good time riding in the stealth jet, he hadn't ridden in many fast air vehicles in their travels. He thought it was fun compared to the sluggish speed of his friend Jolt.

"So Steelburst, what's your deal with Thunderblast?" Bud asked suddenly, "You in love with her or something"

"Uh, what?" Steelburst sputtered, more surprised than embarrassed.

"Well you do seem very attached to her." Bud said, trying to sound smarter than he really was. "And you did beg Optimus to bring her out here..."

"..." Steelburst was silent, finally reaching a position of space where they would be safe from any attack from the decepticons on the moon and were close enough to observe the fight.

"Hey guys," Coby said over the short range communicator in his robot, "Do you see that down on the moon by the Atlantis? Does it look like a camp fire to you?"

"Maybe the decepticons are having a picnic?" Bud suggested.

"Bud, how can a fire exist in a total vacuum?" Lori muttered, wishing he was in the Cobybot with her and Coby so she could whack him on the head for saying something THAT stupid.

* * *

Blastoff was not happy about this, here he was with both Optimus Prime and Megatron holding onto his wings as if he was a transport like Astrotrain or Octane. He was supposed to be a sniper! Even now he as he was escaping Cybertron's gravity well he was muttering and complaining about the indignity of it all. Once they got to the moon Blastoff would do as Megatron had ordered, return to Cybertron and combine with the other Combaticons to form Bruticus and aid in the world wide pest control.

"Do you think your troops will be alright on this parallel Cybertron?" Optimus asked, sitting in the cramped quarters of Blastoff's hanger. It was meant for holding Blastoff's weaponry and the occasional bit of cargo, not two large transformers.

"The Combaticons are strong," Megatron said, "even without the ability to form Bruticus they should have no problems with these weak copies no matter their numbers."

Blastoff couldn't help but feel a little jealousy towards his teammate, since he was here acting as a currier Megatron's compliment did not apply to him. He couldn't wait to go home where he could spend all the time he wanted in the quiet of space where he could be alone.

"I feel the same about Bumblebee and Grimlock, they're very resourceful and with the help of these autobots they should be fine." Optimus Prime said.

"These autobots... they seem more pacified than your troops." Megatron said, "It as if they had barely half the conflict that our people have suffered."

Optimus Prime nodded, "I noticed that too, while it is a tragedy that it took us so long to put stop our war perhaps it did make us collectively stronger."

Megatron had to agree, if the autobots had fallen early his empire could have degraded to something akin to Jhiaxus's Cybertronian empire and if his decepticons had been quashed in their dawn then the autobots would never have been able to cope with threats like Unicron or the Quintessons. Megatron was never one to credit Primus for anything, but perhaps this is what their creator had wanted from the start. But if Scourge did not come quietly perhaps Megatron would tell Scourge to ask Primus that very question when he sent Scourge to the slag pits of Polyhex for a slow execution.

* * *

"Is everything set Redalert?" Jazz asked.

"Affirmative," Redalert nodded as he walked away from the bridge. "The auto pilot has been set and everyone's been loaded into the escape pods to use to get to the moon afterwards and the thirty seconds this ship will start moving. A shame to crash this ship, I just Override doesn't get too angry about it."

Both autobots rushed to the nearest escape pod and climbed inside, alerting the others that it was time to leave the Velocitron ship. Before long the autobots were floating in space in the escape pods, watching as the massive ancient starship drifted down towards the surface of the moon. Many of the team felt it was a true waste, both ships could be irreparably damaged in the crash. Much worse the stolen Omega Lock and Matrix of Leadership could be lost as well. But each one knew that if it meant stopping the decepticons once more.

* * *

Soundwave's optics widened as the autobot's ship drew closer, it didn't take even a microsecond to realize what was happening. He had noticed Blastoff coming towards their position but the Combaticon and the commanders would not be arriving for a few more minutes. The Ogygia on the other hand was powering up its engines, there was no time to delay, Soundwave hurriedly activated the comm. system...

"Attention all decepticons! Abandon ship, the autobots are going to ram us! I repeat: abandon ship!" Soundwave shouted as he gathered his cassette forces and collected them inside his chest.

Soundwave didn't care if Scourge got out of the ship, it would just mean his plans were accelerated once Megatron, to him the real Megatron arrived.

* * *

The Fallen was pleased, after running the power cable from the machine to the Atlantis and with a few presses of buttons the time displacement device hummed to life. The kaleidoscope of light that occurred normally when someone was being brought through time and space was now an inky blackness that was now focused on a point far from the moon. Slowly large hole in the fabric of reality was being torn, making room for the massive entity that would be coming through.

Turning back towards the ship The Fallen's optic sensors widened as the Ogygia sped down towards the Atlantis. While he was sure that the majority of the impact would fall on the opposite side of the ship and push the Atlantis away from the machine that meant that the Atlantis would crush him and the only chance Unicron had to return to this reality under its hull.

The Fallen did the only thing he could do, he transformed into his tank form and fired at the Atlantis in strategic points to alter its trajectory. Transforming back to robot mode the fiery servant of Unicron moved to protect the machine as the ship instead of coming down in an angle impacted straight down. The impact shook the surface of the moon as dust and metal debris was thrown into the near nonexistent atmosphere of the moon. For a few hanging seconds the Ogygia stood there embedded in the Atlantis's bow before finally succumbing to the moon's weak gravity and came crashing down so that now both ships were laying shattered nose to nose.

The Fallen wasted no time in examining the machine to ensure it was not damaged. To his ire a large piece of shrapnel had pierced the main processing portion of the machine. While the portal was still opening the machine was now shaking and humming loudly. To any other transformer this would have run alarm bells but The Fallen cared only about calling his master back, if an explosion occurred then so be it. It would destroy the Matrix of Leadership and the Omega Lock as well, it would just be two more weapons out of the hands of Primus.

* * *

The dust slowly began to settle back down to the moon as the decepticons pulled themselves up off the rocky ground. They were grateful to be functional after such a sudden attack, even though some of them would have traded their weapons for windshield wipers on their optic sensors.

Scourge was the first to stand to observe the aftermath of the crash... the ships had connected bridge to bridge so there was no hope of a quick getaway for the would-be decepticon leader. His forces were starting to pull themselves out of the dust and rock, largely unharmed but in shock from the attack. Above them Scourge noticed there were two things coming towards the moon; a few Cybertronian escape pods and... Blastoff? How did he get there?

The blue decepticon stood frozen as his innate ability to see great distances kicked in to see if it was indeed Blastoff. What he saw hanging on the wings of the space shuttle were Optimus Prime, the Optimus Prime who he had faced back in his home dimension and far worse... Megatron. Inside, Scourge was now panicking. Megatron had come here to exact some sort of Galvatron-esqe revenge. Not wanting to be on the wrong end of a Particle Cannon, Scourge took a commanding pose and addressed his forces.

"Decepticons!" Scourge shouted, "Pick yourselves up! The enemy descends to destroy us all!"

"Uh Scourge, boss..." Thundercracker squeaked, pointing up towards empty space, "What's that?"

Scourge looked where the dim witted jet was pointing and growled; "Nothing, there's nothing here. Now shut up and attack! Fracas!"

The targetmaster groaned, beginning to hate this job and transformed into Scourge's incendiary cannon. As soon as he was in Scourge's grasp the blue decepticon fired on the incoming Blastoff. The other decepticons followed suit taking fire with whatever they could find. Scourge found himself wishing he had ordered some of the drones to remain with the ship. He had the Terrorcons and the Insecticons along with Soundwave and his cassettes, but if the others realized that Megatron was coming then there was a chance that his forces would mutiny.

"Soundwave, jam their transmissions. We don't want them calling for reinforcements!" Scourge commanded, his focus was not the autobots but Megatron. He did not want the decepticon commander to contact his former forces and order them to stand down.

* * *

The autobots opened the doors to the escape pods and prepared to drop down into battle when he pre-emptive fire from the decepticons began, forcing them to take cover in the thick armor of the pods.

"Optimus, there's something really wrong out here," Coby's voice ran out through Optimus's communicator, at least at first, static quickly began to garble the human's message. "it's to your left all the ... stars... completely black..."

"Coby? Coby can you repeat that?" Optimus shouted into his communicator, sighing as no reply came. "They must be jamming our communications."

"What are your orders?" Redalert asked, "We can't just sit up here. The escape pods are tough but eventually they're going to go out on us."

"Right. Close the doors and send us down." Optimus said, secretly having no clue how to operate the escape pod's menial controls.

"How will we contact the others to follow us?" Redalert said as he worked the small control panel, turning the pod towards the moon and firing the weak engines at maximum. "If the decepticons are jamming our transmissions than they won't know about this." "If they see us they will follow us down." Optimus said, "I'm sorry but we have this chance to stop them and we have to take it."

Redalert nodded, "I just hope we can take these guys..."

* * *

Down on Cybertron things were not going so well for the Gigantion transformers. Their few numbers and lack of maneuverability made destroying these slime filled drones very difficult but they eventually fought off the majority of these things. The Lemuria had large holes in her hull and in more vulnerable areas like her weapons bay and engines were now stripped bare. The great ship now looked like a fresh carcass that was being picked at by carrion birds.

"These things just keep coming!" Quickmix shouted, tired and covered in green sludge from smashing the bugs with his powerful hands.

"And they're a might too disgusting." Menasor said, fearing the thick goo from the drones was going to gum up his joints.

"Aye but they go down with one good blow." Metroplex bellowed as he swatted an Insecticon drone with his axe.

"Then maybe you need a stronger enemy." A gruff voice shouted.

Before Metroplex could turn to see who was calling him a large black semi truck plowed into him. The semi continued to drive, even after knocking the leader of Gigantion to the ground and running over the titan.

"Oi... what hit me?" Metroplex groaned, only now noticing the tire marks on his chest. "Eh, this is quite the mess. Who did this!?"

The three Gigantion transformers turned to follow the direction where the large semi had gone, only to see it was coming back with four other vehicles. But instead of ramming the three giants the cars began to circle them, laughing maniacally before transforming and pointing guns at the larger but outnumbered Metroplex, Quickmix, and Menasor.

"What's this all about?" Metroplex growled, lifting his axe in a threatening pose. At first he couldn't figure why they were being attacked, that was until he saw that each of these young mechs were wearing decepticon symbols. "If yer lookin for trouble-" "Quiet you old fossil!" Motormaster shouted, pointing "You'll be smart and surrender now or we'll just have to beat some sense into you."

"Are ya sure it won't be you on the side of the beating ya little thug?" Menasor said as he gave his drill arm a rev, flinging slime at the Stunticons.

Deadend cringed, it would take him hours to get all of this grime off his chassis. "Thanks a lot..."

Any other time Motormaster would have laughed at Deadend's misfortune, he knew how the fatalist preferred to keep clean so that when he was destroyed he would at least leave a handsome corpse behind. Motormaster would save that for later, but now it was time to have some fun. It would be worth the inevitable lip he was going to get from Scourge for coming down here without being ordered to play with these overgrown autobots.

"Let's say we even the odds a little. Stunticons combine!" Motormaster ordered, transforming back to his truck mode.

Metroplex had seen this before with Abominus, but now this was happening with these five hooligans. The five trouble makers all changed into their alt-modes and combined into a large transformer, nearly twice as tall as Quickmix. The mighty gestalt Menasor now stood in front of the trio, ionizer sword in hand and looking down with a crazed rage in his dark red optics.

"Run lads." Metroplex said, "I've dealt with the likes of these kinds of decepticons before, I can hold him while you both go get help."

"But Metroplex we can help now!" Quickmix objected, not seeing why they both had to go.

"Just do it lads, we can't let these bugs eat the whole ship now can we?" Metroplex then gave his subordinates a grin, "And it's been a while since I've had a good opponent."

"We can't just-"

Quickmix was about to object once again when his fellow Gigantion, Menasor pulled him away as the two large transformers began to battle. "The old man wants this, let him have it. The ship canna take care of herself like he can so let's do some good where we can."

Quickmix didn't like it one bit but what Menasor said was right. If they stayed and fought with Metroplex those drones could eat the whole ship, and that meant a month or two just trying to figure out the best way to repair this old ship. Both younger Gigantion transformers left the scene as Metroplex's axe collided with Menasor's large ionizer sword.

* * *

To be continued.

* * *

AN: you guys are going to have to forgive me for not giving a lot of time between the Primes and Megatrons interacting together. It's just hard to distinguish between them since they both have the same name. Also, how many G1 movie quotes did you find in this chappie?

GrimlockX4 - Not a problem, but if you wanted more info you could've just gone to the transformers wiki via google. I especially like the caption for Waspinator near the bottom; "Someone give this guy a hug." Also, if you check out the tech specs on The Fallen's toy you'll see the infinity symbol in his strength, endurance, and intelligence stats.

tomorrow4eva - Yeah, it's for that reason I'm not going to have G1 Megs and C Megs fighting. Too confusing in text but it would be awesome in a cartoon or in a comic...

Meirelle - Yay cookies! Nom nom nom...

dark knight vergil - Believe it. But I hope you're enjoying this, because this fic's only got a few chapters left. Wait till you see what happened to jungle planet's leader. -evil face-

SpartanCommander - Thanks for reminding me about how Unicron would take control of Scourge. That had completely slipped my mind since this is going to be the Unicron from either Armada or Energon.


	24. The hand of discord

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 24

Author's note: Sorry about last chapter not having any indication of a scene change, it's just for the last three chapters I was allowed to have hyphens in my story, last chapter FF decided to change what you have in your fic and took hyphens out of chapter 23 when I uploaded it. Trying to keep up with FF is growing more and more annoying for me.

* * *

The life pods finally landed on the surface of the moon, the impact had been rough and the life pods would never be able to function unless they were taken to a repair bay for massive reconstruction. However they were now functioning as cover against the blaster fire of the decepticons. Optimus and Red alert had both used their cyberkeys to activate their more powerful weaponry but all it did was keep both sides shooting from cover.

Soundwave was crouching behind a large piece of the hull to take cover from the fire while laying down some suppressing fire. Looking skyward he could see Blastoff in the distance, he felt that now it was time to change sides in this little excursion and turned off his jamming signal and sent a signal to Megatron.

"Commander," Soundwave said, "this is Soundwave. Scourge is here on the moon trapped with a number of resurrected decepticons. What are your orders?"

"Soundwave, amplify my signal so that all decepticons can hear my commands." Megatron's grin could be felt over Soundwave's communicator.

Scourge meanwhile had grown tired of this standstill. The would be decepticon despot transformed, flew from where he had taken cover, and flew towards the escape pods. "Decepticons! Charge!"

"Decepticons! Stand down at once! This is your leader Megatron speaking!"

Every decepticon, native or otherwise turned to Soundwave where the booming signal had come from. The native Megatron blinked, noting how everyone of these soldiers were frozen in fear. He had seen similar reactions to his own miserable excuse for troops at his approach. Crumplezone and Thundercracker were more confused than scared, having no idea what was going on.

Soundwave chuckled to himself. Amplifying signals was a simple matter for him and right now the look on his fellow decepticons was all too priceless. Enjoying the sight so much Soundwave saved the images of shock and fear for later amusement.

"What're you guys so scared about?" Thundercracker laughed, "I mean come on the guy's gotta be-"

Thundercracker was silenced as a large decepticon commander's 'foot' landed on the back of his head. Next to him landed Optimus Prime, the one these decepticons knew far too well. Next to the two commanders landed Blastoff, who felt a little insignificant compared to the commanders. Not that the Combaticon would ever show it. "Me-Megatron!" Scourge gulped, trying to come up with a good lie to tell the decepticon commander. "How wonder to see you... I erm, have been preparing this universe for your arrival and I -GRRK!"

Megatron's powerful hands had found their way around the Sweep commander's throat and had been lifted off the moon's surface. Not an impressive feat considering the poor gravity of the moon but it did provide the usual aura of fear that had so often proved necessary to hold the decepticon ranks in line.

Optimus Prime watched begrudgingly, he didn't like how Megatron would occasionally browbeat his troops but it wasn't his concern. According to the newly written Pax Cybertronia, the peace accord between the autobots and the decepticons said that while both sides would work together each faction would discipline their troops as they saw fit. Megatron could have Scourge thrown in a pit full of Sharkticons if he so wanted and Optimus would not be able to do anything about it but voice his disgust for the act.

"That's enough out of you Scourge." Megatron's grip tightened, starting to crimp off the power cables to Scourge's CPU. "At least Starscream can lie with some talent. You on the other hand..."

Megatron spun and threw the would-be usurper into a large moon rock which turned to dust when Scourge collided face first with it. The memories of how he used to strike fear into his troops during the days of his insanity and he was sure that Scourge remembered them well.

The other Decepticons took a step back, all except the Megatron native to this reality. He was a little impressed, but after all this was supposedly another version of him. But if this copy of him was just as strong willed there would be no hope of overpowering all of these decepticons if they fell under his command. Megatron was not going to take orders, even from himself.

"Ransack, Crumplezone, Thundercracker." Megatron ordered, "Come on, we're leaving."

The other transformers saw the native Megatron open a red warp gate and vanish into it, followed by the other native decepticons. The Insecticons bolted towards the warp gate. Hoping to escape with them but the gate closed the second the last of the four, Thundercracker, stepped through it.

Megatron returned his red optics to Scourge, "Looks like your troops are not as loyal as you believed."

Scourge felt boxed in, with Megatron here there everything he had worked for was falling apart around him. There seemed to be nothing he could do or that was the case until he noticed his Targetmaster Fracas standing not far from where he had landed. Grinning a little, Scourge motioned for Fracas to come closer.

The Targetmaster nodded and leapt into the air as he transformed to his gun mode. But before he could reach his partner's hand he was snatched out up by Buzzsaw, one of Soundwave's cassettes. The mechanical condor flew back to Soundwave who grasped the Targetmaster tightly so he could not transform and kept him pointed harmlessly up into empty space.

"Soundwave! You traitor..." Scourge growled, "Now that Megatron's here you-"

"Have fulfilled my mission." Soundwave said, "Megatron knew you were still out there, so I was sent out to find you and keep an optic open for any activity that would obstruct the war against the second generation transformers. Like it or not Scourge you are not the leader you think you are. In all this time I have brokered deals with each of your underlings."

"You said nothing about Megatron coming here! Coming here..." Shrapnel snorted.

"I had no idea the commander was coming here." Soundwave said, "And my offer to destroy Scourge once the time was right was genuine."

Optimus shook his head, while Soundwave had done a fantastic job infiltrating and crippling Scourge's forces but did he just say that if they had not come that he would have taken command and conquered this reality?

Megatron now turned to the Insecticons, while they were loose cannons and had betrayed him numerous times in the past they were capable of following orders. "You three, call off your attack at once, there's no point in this conflict other than Scourge's own ego."

Shrapnel, Bombshell, and Kickback looked at each other and did as they were told and signaled to their drones on Cybertron to stop the attack and wait for new orders.

"It's done Megatron," Kickback said, "Now what are you going to do with Scourge?"

Megatron grinned maliciously, still playing off of Scourge's memories of his days as Galvatron. "He will be taken to Polyhex, now the decepticon headquarters on Cybertron. There we have a trial then throw him in the smelting pools."

Scourge did the transformer equivalent of a gulp, it did not look like he would be escaping this time. His whole mission had fallen apart in a matter of minutes... he only wished he had Starscream's luck in escaping punishment. Across in the damaged pods the Autobots were watching how these three newcomers had somehow stopped the decepticon's laser fire with words rather than blasters.

Optimus's yellow optics were fixed on the large autobot among them, he looked hauntingly like him. He guessed that the 'garbled transmission' they had gotten from Cybertron before arriving wasn't gibberish after all.

"Well Optimus, what should we do?" Redalert asked, not sure what was going on but he was glad at least they could contact Cybertron now.

"Let's hold back and see what's going to happen..." Optimus ordered, "and contact Scattershot while you're at it. I want to know about these newcomers."

Before he could relay this order to Hound and Jazz to remain where they were, the two otherworldly autobots had spied their commander and hand rushed over to where he stood.

Optimus Prime (1) turned at the sound of footsteps behind him. Much to his surprise and relief he saw Hound and Jazz closing in on his position. Both autobots saluted their commander and smiled, showing that they were just has happy to see Optimus Prime too. If he was here then he had to know a way to get them back... right?

"Hound, Jazz, good to see your both still functional." Optimus Prime said, "Report."

"Old Scourge's been leading us on a chase around this galaxy." Jazz said, "He snatched this reality's Prime's Matrix and an artifact called the Omega Lock to bring back his buddies from the past."

"That would explain what I was experiencing before..." Optimus Prime said, putting a hand over his spark chamber where the matrix was held. He remembered the pain that had shot through him quite vividly.

Megatron put his boot on Scourge's chest, it was time to issue his ultimatum. "Any of you that swear your utter loyalty to me shall remain functioning by the end of the solar cycle. Those who do not will, well allow me to show you."

Turning sharply to a large boulder Megatron transformed to tank mode aimed his cannon, with only a single shot reduced the boulder to a floating cloud of powder.

Quickly returning to robot mode Megatron faced his troops, "Well, what do you have to say?"

The Insecticons looked at each other before bowing down on one knee, followed by Soundwave who was still holding tightly onto Fracas. Scourge got off his feet only to bow again, hoping that he could live long enough to get his chance to flee Megatron's wrath.

It was then that the native Optimus came out from the cover of the life pod followed closely by Hotshot and Redalert. Optimus felt like he was looking in a warped mirror, the Prime he was looking at was a little taller than him and less bulky, by his appearance he had to guess that he had an alt mode similar to his own.

Optimus Prime conversely thought that this version of himself looked like he should be weighed down with all those extra mods on his back. He also noted that he was wearing an incomplete face protector, an odd choice but he couldn't pass judgment on what was essentially him.

"Uh, I am Optimus Prime leader of the autobots. This is Hotshot and Redalert." Optimus felt so awkward, he was introducing himself to... himself.

Optimus Prime chuckled, "Would you consider this introduction a bizarre form of vanity, introducing your men to yourself?"

Blastoff shrugged, not eager to agree with the autobot commander. "I wouldn't know Prime."

"I believe you know who I am," Optimus Prime said, "Behind me is Blastoff, a member of the Combaticons and that over there is Megatron, high commander of the Deceptions."

"So wait, you three just showed up all the sudden all the fighting is over?" Hotshot asked.

"No, Megatron was the one who ended that." Optimus Prime noticed the hypocrisy of Megatron actually bringing a battle to an end without so much as a single blast was but he would rather not say that out loud. "That was... actually much easier than I expected."

"Uh hey Optimus?" Optimus's radio crackled to life, he had been so focused on this otherworldly double he almost forgotten the radio waves were clear.

"Yes Coby? What is it?" Optimus asked.

"You may want to look up." Coby said.

* * *

Below on Cybertron Metroplex heaved a pained groan, he had been giving it his all against Abominus but this brainless gestalt was far stronger than him and his armor was so thick it had actually dulled the blades on his axe. Abominus roared a feral cry and lumbered towards the tired leader of Gigantion.

"Yer a tough one I'll give ya that." Metroplex said, almost sounding grateful for the fight. "At least I got the young'uns away from here."

Abominus raised his fist to deliver a final blow when another large fist smashed into Abominus's face, sending the Terrorcon gestalt over the side of the Gigantion ship.

Metroplex looked up and winced, he saw another large decepticon gestalt. Sure it looked different and it was missing its right arm this large transformer stood nearly twice as tall as Metroplex.

"Bruticus destroy traitors." It boomed, pulling a large blaster from its side and leaping down after Abominus.

Metroplex could hardly believe what had just happened, he had been saved by another decepticon gestalt. This made no sense, was a decepticon coup d'etat happening? Metroplex had never seen this giant combiner before, and why was he missing an arm?

Bruticus ignored the large transformer, the gestalt's thoughts were even less coherent than usual since Blastoff was not combined with the others. While Blastoff was egotistic but he did bring a superior sharp shooting skill to the gestalt's muddled mind (2). Whatever the case, Bruticus removed his enormous sonic stun gun from his side where Onslaught was located. With his weapon in his one and only arm the gestalt was about to leap down to do battle against Abominus when something high above Cybertron caught his eye.

* * *

Grimlock and Bumblebee had taken to protecting civilian autobots from the since their arrival. Both of them felt like they were going to need a very long cleaning because both were covered in green goo from exploding pseudo-organic Insecticon drones.

"I never liked these things back when we first fought them and I don't like them now." Bumblebee groaned as he cleared more slime from his optics.

"Quit complaining," Grimlock chided his smaller companion as he sliced a drone in half with his energon sword, "it not like these things are tough, they go down in one shot and stay down."

Bumblebee had to agree, it was easier than fighting the second generation transformers. The diminutive transformer went back to shooting, only to notice that the drones weren't attacking anymore. They were all just sitting around ignoring everything around them.

"Someone wanna tell me what's going on?" Bumblebee asked, keeping his blaster trained on the drones.

"Me not know, maybe Prime stop decepticons and drones shut down." Grimlock wasn't as convinced as he sounded, these drones could just be as humans call it 'playing possum.'

Not wanting to wait to find out, Bumblebee picked up a chunk of debris from the ground and threw it at one of the mindless clones. There was a clank of metal on exoskeleton but the offended drone did nothing but sit there like a stone.

"Well, that's that I guess." The yellow autobot said as he wiped more of the revolting slime from his chest plate. "I swear I'm going to need my entire casing taken off just to get all of this gunk off me... Primus I'm starting to sound like Sunstreaker."

"Bumblebee, what's that look like to you?" Grimlock asked, pointing upward into the black starry sky that always covered Cybertron.

Bumblebee just stared, frozen in place at the sight of a massively large robotic hand that was steadily being pulled out of the void. "Is that what I think it is?"

One word came to Grimlock's mind, one he hoped to remain a memory since they last encountered this giant. "Unicron..."

* * *

The giant hand that was now sticking out of nothingness had the children frozen in fear inside both cockpits. None of the humans had seen images of Unicron before, and while the autobots had mentioned him a few times Coby, Lori, and Bud where not prepare for just how massive he really was. Even though it was just his forearm and hand it was clear to them that he was maybe even bigger than Primus. (3)

The strange effects of Unicron coming through the portal could be seen from where the kids were. Some of the far away planets were spinning around their stars so fast that the stars seemed to have solid rings around them. A comet shot by over heads only to halt in its tracks and then vanish into nothing. It was if space itself was going insane.

"Cody," Bud said over the communicator, "I'm scared."

"I'm scared too Bud..." Coby said, not going to mention to his little brother how he and Lori where both holding hands in a weak attempt to calm each other.

"Do not be frightened children," a wizened voice said from no where. "There is a way to undo all of this madness."

"I know that voice!" Jolt said as he turned to look for where the voice had come from.

Standing behind them was the old transformer, standing as if he had always been there.

"Vector Prime!" Bud cheered, "You're alive!"

Vector Prime's metal face seemed to soften, he was glad to see that they were just as energetic as ever. "As long as time exists I will exist Bud, but if things continue as they are then that may not be very long."

* * *

To be continued.

* * *

(1) I'll just go ahead and refer to G1 Optimus as Optimus Prime and Cybertron OP as just Optimus... I never expected it to be easy to write for two characters with the same name. The Scourges were bad enough. Kinda makes me wish I had used C Optimus's Japanese name of Galaxy Convoy.

(2) Okay I made that up, I don't know what exactly Blastoff brings to the party.

(3) I say this because Unicron increases his mass by eating planets and using their material to power himself and to make minor repairs. Remember all that water from the 1986 transformers that was in Unicron? I assume that came from an ocean from a planet or two Unicron ate.

GrimlockX4 - heh, Snake Eyes would be easy to write for, since he never speaks.

Meirelle - Unicron is the chaos bringer not the cookie eater! nom nom nom... *cookie eating noises* =P

SpartanCommander - A good question, something I never understood either but I guess the Scrapmetals were added as an after thought to the script and soon written out for time issues. The Cobybot was annoying to me, they used it ONCE throughout the whole series and suddenly it vanishes with no explanation. Why make something that cool and never use it again? But back to your idea: it has merit, I mean if Unicron were to integrate the machine into his body and use his own god-like power to bring his servants back. He tried tinkering with time once to try to make Galvatron suffer once Galvy was already dead.

tomorrow4eva - What? -looks- WTF!? FF took out all the hyphens I put in! I don't get this site anymore...

dark knight vergil - Yeah I know about ROTF and yes he was only beaten because Primus himself woke up and destroyed him. Sadly I don't have high hopes for the film because the last one was 90 percent about the puny humans and that Michael Bay will be involved again.


	25. Name of the enemy

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 25

* * *

"Vector Prime, what do you mean?" Lori asked, "As long at time exists you're supposed to be around!"

"Children, listen well for I have no time to repeat myself." Vector Prime sighed, he hated to see the children this upset but he had little time to spare. Every second he delayed the temporal disruptions would get worse and worse. Still, he felt he owed it to them to calm their fears. "Everywhere Unicron goes he distorts space and time. Since my creation I have done my best to repair the damage he leaves in his wake but a sudden resurrection like this will be like dropping a boulder in a calm pool of water. Every event in this timeline will shuffle and distort until nothing is recognizable."

"I don't quite understand..." Bud said, but Coby was silenced by a sharp 'sh' from Lori. So instead of arguing he pointed out the window of the Cobybot at the strange burning speck on the moon's surface. "Vector Prime Do you see that fire down there on the moon?"

Vector Prime turned and looked, and with his extraordinary vision he saw what Bud was pointing at. A wave of shame and disappointment came over the guardian of time, he knew well the sad fate that had befell his ancient brother. It had been so long that even Vector Prime could not recall the name Prime had bestowed to him, he could only remember that The Fallen one was meant to observe the force of entropy in the universe and how he had fallen under Unicron's banner.

"Of all the things that I am ashamed of Bud, that Transformer down on the surface of the moon represents my greatest failure." Vector Prime said, "I do not have time to explain everything, just know that the Transformer you see down there is more dangerous than even Galvatron. Warn Optimus Prime before he decides to engage him in combat."

"Vector Prime wait..." Jolt squeaked, his optics pleading with the giant clockwork robot. He had left them once, did he really have to leave them again so soon? "Where are you going?"

"I have no choice Jolt, I can only exist here and now because of the disruption in time and space caused by Unicron." Vector Prime said, he hated to have to run out on the children and the Mini-cons but he did not act soon this whole time line would destabilize. "I will once more leave the children once more in your capable hands. Steelburst, transform at once! I have need of you in my plan."

Steelburst, who had remained silent through out this encounter did as he was told. Vector Prime this would mean possibly loosing the off center Autobot but the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the one.

"I will do all that I can to make things right children, please take care of yourselves!" Grasping Steelburst roughly by the arm both transformers disappeared utterly.

Silence hung inside the Cobybot's cockpit. Vector Prime was one of their oldest friends and to just see him run off after loosing him was like opening an old wound to pour salt inside. The same was true for the Mini-cons, but Safegaurd was the hardest hit. Where as Jolt, SixSpeed, and Reverb had known Vector Prime for many years, Safeguard had been the guardian's companion for nearly an eon.

Despite the sorrow the whole group felt, it was Lori who snapped them out of their funk. "Wait, with Steelburst and Vector Prime gone that means that we're stranded out here in space with Thunderblast."

The deactivated decepticon floated nearby, but she was as lifeless as the surface of the moon far below them. For that they could at least be a little grateful.

"Well, at least I had the foresight to install an oxygen recycler in the cockpit after last time so we don't suffocate..." Coby said, "It looks like we'll be up here for a while."

* * *

How was it possible? Unicron was supposed to be destroyed. That was the thought that echoed through both Optimus primes. Though they spoke from different experiences they had both destroyed the Chaos Bringer in their own universes and now they were staring as the monster planet was slowly emerging from a hole in the universe.

For Megatron is was even worse. He had hoped that he would never have to gaze upon Unicron again, it only brought back memories of his time under the thumb of Unicron and the insanity that followed. Scourge only remembered the many, many times Galvatron blasted him and his Sweeps for almost no reason.

"Alright Scourge," Megatron snarled, once more pulling the tracker up by the throat. "Was this your plan? To bring Unicron back so he can win your battles for you?"

"Never I swear!" Scourge screamed, more terrified than ever. "I was going to rule this Cybertron, I can't do that if it's destroyed!"

Once more Megatron threw Scourge into the dirt. "Listen well Scourge, if we have to fight Unicron again, you will be leading from the front."

Redalert turned to his commanding officer, "Optimus, what's the plan?"

Optimus hadn't taken his optics away from the massive hand, it all seemed to surreal. They defeated Unicron when he attacked Cybertron, they destroyed him when he tried again years later, and then they destroyed the singularity that had remained after the Chaos Bringer's death. The native autobot commander wondered if it they would ever truly be free of Unicron.

"Optimus!"

Optimus shook his head, "I don't know Redalert... I just don't-"

"Krrtz- Optimus! On the other side of the ship!" Bud's excited voice rang through Optimus's audio receptors, spooking the commander enough to change his doubt into concern. "On the other side of the Atlantis is the guy who's doing this! Vector Prime told us!"

This didn't make any sense, but then again this was Bud talking. "Vector Prime? Slow down Bud, what are you talking about?"

On board the Cobybot Coby had taken the microphone away from his younger brother. "Optimus, you won't believe this but Vector Prime appeared. He said that the fire we see from up here is actually a Transformer called... what did he call him? Oh thanks Lori, Vector Prime called him 'The Fallen.' He also said you shouldn't fight him."

Optimus wasn't sure what to make of this, he needed more information. "Did he say anything else Coby?"

"He said that Unicron was disrupting time and that he was going to go fix things, Then he took Steelburst and just disappeared." Coby said, "Optimus, we're stranded out here. Can you send some help?"

At the mention of The Fallen Jazz froze, he remembered the name well. It was millions of years ago during the dark age of Cybertron when Optimus and Megatron were thought dead when the two factions splintered and infighting was common. The Fallen appeared out of nowhere and kidnapped several autobots then raided the prison, Level Zero where they were holding Blitzwing. It was then Jazz and several other bots fought and were defeated by the monster. It wasn't the defeat that made the normally cool autobot tense up, but rather how easily The Fallen had tossed them aside to get what he wanted. If they had to face him again Jazz did not know if they could possibly win without nothing less than complete overwhelming force.

"What are your orders Megatron?" Soundwave asked, not sure what to do at this point. "How will we be returning to our home dimension?"

Megatron gritted his teeth, he had no idea exactly when they could return home to the Cybertron they called home. Except, there was one way. Scourge's little machine could be used to send them back, with a little tweak here and there. Prime would just have to deal with a little pain that's all.

"Where is your device Scourge?" Megatron demanded, "We have a little appointment back at Polyhex. Your trial."

"T-trail?" Scourge sputtered, he knew what a joke that was. Decepticon justice was swift and harsh, he would most likely just get a list of his charges before being torn to peices or thrown into the smelting pools.

"I may be able to save you from your trial if you were to cooperate." Megatron mused, a twisted smile crossed his face. "Well Scourge?"

"Megatron, I am detecting a powerful signal being sent from the moon's surface." Soundwave said, "It's being sent in Unicron's direction."

"Where is it Soundwave?" Optimus Prime asked.

"On the other side of this ship, the position where your counterpart informed us of this entity called The Fallen." Soundwave droned as respectively as he could in his monotone voice.

Blastoff flew up into the air to peer over the ship. Sure there on the other side was the firey transformer and the massive machine. Coming back down Blastoff said; "It's there alright, and so is that weirdo."

"Then our course is clear, we go over there and take the machine away from this 'Fallen.'" Megatron scoffed, not believing for a second that this one transformer was a match for their forces. "Insecticons, order your drones to come to this location. No matter anyone's strength they cannot stand against a whole army."

"That would take too long Megatron," Optimus Prime said, "by then Unicron could be past an unknown event horizon and be impossible to stop him from coming back."

It was a possibility, yes, one Megatron did not want to chance. "Then we will have to take him out as quickly as possible."

"But Vector Prime said not to engage him," Optimus, the native Optimus said, "I do not expect you to put your trust in someone you have never met but I know he would not advise against doing something unless there was a good reason."

"You would rather have Unicron destroy your Cybertron?" Hound asked.

"Of course not, I'm merely stating there must be a way to get around him without fighting him." Optimus said.

"Maybe he's right. I fought this whacko way back during Cybertron's dark age." Jazz said, "A whole Autobot platoon was nothin compared to this guy. I don't want to fight him again unless I really have to."

Jazz's words made Optimus Prime reconsider, but what choice did they have? Looking around at the troops there was one way. "Bombshell, do you still have any Cerebro shells?"

"Of course I do!" Bombshell snorted, insulted that Prime would even think that he would never go anywhere unprepared. "What are you planning?"

* * *

To be continued.

* * *

Okay okay it was short I know but if I included the big battle in here it would be huge. Working on that right now so don't worry. That's right, the next chapter is the Fallen vs everyone on the moon!

GrimlockX4 - Thanks.

dark knight vergil - One can only hope the TFs will have more screen time. But yeah, I guess that Unicron would be larger than Primus since Unicron devours anything from stars to planet while Primus... well doesn't. In fact in the comics Unicron once said after creating Hook, Line, and Sinker that his mass was too great to teleport. Suggesting that Unicron does increase in size the more he eats.

SpartanCommander - yeah, I know the Cybertron Decepticon you mean. I didn't think he was worth brining in since we only see him a few times in the series. As for Blastoff, I tried to get him as well as I could but to be honest I didn't think I was going to have him in a scene for very long.

FTKnight - Thanks Knight, glad to see you're still reading this.

tomorrow4eva - Yeap, but really there's three problems. Unicron, The Fallen, and the collapse of time and space.

Meirelle - You got mah fix! *dives into glowy sugary cookie mound* NOM NOM NOM!


	26. Temporal chaos

Jazzerman here, I do not own any of these characters, they are owned by their respected companies, as many as there are. You've heard this crap before. I only own my OCs. All reviews are answered at the bottom of the chapter.

Broken boundaries

Part 26

---

Shapes and color spiraled around Steelburst as he was pulled onward through space and time by the clockwork prime. His joints creaked as if they were being pulled apart and compressed at the same time, his optic lenses cracked only to seal themselves and crack again, old war wounds would appear and disappear. The former spy thrashed and screamed against Vector Prime's grip. At this point he would welcome death, whatever was happening to him it was unbearable!

Steelburst clutched at his chest, trying to get at his own spark chamber through a chest wound he had received years and year ago. He would have succeeded but he suddenly found his arm striped bare by a black amorphous force. He knew this image well, it was what replayed in his memories each time he went off line. It was the Swarm. The horror continued up his arm and continued to consume him, picking up speed as it moved onto his shoulder. Steelburst was forced to watch as he was quickly reduced to nothing. All went black.

"Wake up!"

Steelburst felt something kick him his side.

"Wake up blast you!"

As the static in his visual sensors cleared he saw that Vector Prime was standing over him with a very sour look on his face. Did this mean that he was still alive? Steelburst found that he was not only alive but in perfect condition. Was all that he had just been through real?

"We don't have time for his." Vector Prime muttered to himself as he pulled Steelburst to his feet. "Do you know where we are?"

They were standing in what looked like a Cybertronian laboratory, one that that hadn't been occupied in a long time. Burners were still on but the beakers that were held in place over them were charred and the liquids they once held were long gone. Papers, charts and graphs were laying on the floor, the desks, some were drawn on the walls. It was hard to tell if this place had been ransacked or was just a mess.

Steelburst shook his head.

"We are two weeks in the past, in Wheeljack's private laboratory." Vector Prime explained in a hurried tone. "Hurry and locate the plans for the device that has caused all of this."

Having never seen the plans for the machine in question Steelburst had no idea what exactly he was looking for. The piles of papers, data pads, and computer drives was staggering. Steelburst sighed and started to sift through them.

---

The battle had already commenced, the Insecticons had tried Megatron's plan of trying to use the cerebro shells on the fiery titan had backfired. Instead of taking control of the fallen transformer the attempt had resulted in Bombshell falling to the ground shrieking in pain. They hadn't counted on the Fallen not only being formidable in body but also in mind. The ancient machine was now using Bombshell's signature weapon to torture him with it.

The autobots were keeping their distance and firing everything they had at The Fallen. But no matter how much firepower was wasted on their target it was simply shrugged off as if it was the faintest of breezes.

"He's... he's unstoppable!" Scourge lamented, he had just scored a headshot with his Targetmaster partner and it had only knocked him back a step. "I don't think we can beat him sir!"

Megatron growled, it seemed as if this would have to be settled by more power than what they had. But he couldn't trigger a neuron explosion so close to the machine. Otherwise they would be trapped in this dimension forever. No doubt Starscream would be the only one glad to see both he and Prime gone and once more things would degrade to war between the factions. Perhaps even leading to another splintering like what occurred in Cybertron's dark ages.

Jazz tried to remember... what had stopped him before? Grimlock knew, and so did Jetfire and Blitzwing but neither of them were here. "Grimlock, come in... I need you to tell me something buddy!"

"What this 'buddy' stuff?" Grimlock grumbled on the other end of the radio.

"Right now we're up on the moon fightin' this guy called 'The Fallen.' Big black hombre, covered in fire, personality of a piece of granite. Remember him?"

The line was silent for a second, as Grimlock searched his memory banks for something fitting that description. It had been millions of years but he finally remembered. He had never been defeated so effortlessly in all his years, The Fallen had been the only one to ever grasp his energon sword with one hand without being injured.

"I... yeah me Grimlock remember him." Grimlock said, almost devoid of emotion.

"You were there when this guy was beaten right?" Jazz ducked a large boulder thrown by The Fallen before he continued. "How did you, Jetfire, Hotspot, and Blitzwing beat this guy?"

"We didn't beat him." Grimlock's voice ran cold out of the radio, "Something he was trying to, I don't know, wake up I guess just appeared, blew him to bits, and disappeared. No idea what it was though, Jetfire thought it might have been Primus but I wouldn't go that far."

Jazz winced, "Well Primus ain't going to just appear and save us this time."

"Grimlock, what's the status down there?" Optimus Prime asked, connecting to the transmission between Jazz and Grimlock.

"Calm, all of those bugs are just sitting there like a lump of molten slag." Grimlock almost sounded disappointed, "And from what I hear the Terrorcons are milling around waiting for Megatron to order them around."

"Get them up here!" Optimus Prime ordered, "We're in a bind up here, nothing we do seems to hurt this guy."

Behind them Kickback transformed into his grasshopper mode and leapt at The Fallen. Landing next to him the Insecticon pulled his hind legs back ready to deliver a devastating blow. The Fallen simply grabbed Kickback's legs and flipped the bug onto his back and brought his burning boot down on Kickback's head. There was a loud crack and Kickback's limbs twitched for a second or two as his spark was extinguished.

---

Steelburst was getting nowhere. Many of these notes were hastily drawn and not kept together, others were precise down to the last detail. Steelburst had never known Wheeljack personally but he was already growing to dislike him for his lack of consistency. The pile of parchments and portable datapads was still growing as he searched.

"What am I supposed to do with these plans once I find them?" Steelburst queried as he looked at the ethereal Transformer standing behind him. Why the Pit wasn't he lending a hand?

"You will destroy them so that Scourge never finds them and starts this whole chain of events." Vector Prime said, "Now hurry and find it!"

"Find it? Why didn't you just tell me you wanted me to destroy it? This could have been over when we first came here!" Steelburst growled as he pulled his decelerator laser out and fired on the pile behind him, setting it on fire.

Vector Prime was taken aback as Steelburst began to open fire on everything on the lab. Equipment was sparking as every working part was shorted out, combustible material was set on fire. For added measure Steelburst brought his large foot down on the datapads.

Vector Prime had expected such a brash action from the former infiltration operative. But it was getting the job done. The time line was already starting to change.

---

The Fallen gripped Megatron's head in his massive hands. Even with both of his hands on The Fallen's he could not pry the monster's hands off. The creak and whine of metal on metal filled the thin air of the moon. The decepticon commander slammed his fists against The Fallen's wrists, trying with all his might to dislodge The Fallen before his head was crushed. In an attempt to aid his former enemy Optimus Prime shoulder rammed the taller transformer. Unfortunately it only resulted in Optimus Prime getting backhanded with one swift motion of The Fallen's arm.

Around them were the damaged forms of their allies. It was strange, only seconds ago they had a large troupe of soldiers. It had happened in a flash, as if everything had happened in fast forward. Scourge was laying on the ground in stasis lock, his partner Fracas nearby unconscious inside his Targetmaster component. Soundwave was on his back leaking energon and oil from his armless torso; around him were scattered remains of his cassette companions. The remaining Insecticons were no better. The Fallen had redirected an electrical blast from Shrapnel back at him and fried him like the bug he was. Bombshell was curled up on the ground, unable to disconnect from the cerebro shell lodged inside The Fallen's head. Jazz and Hound were standing but teetering on the edge of stasis lock from the attacks they had suffered. Much to Optimus's horror Hotshot was completely missing a leg and Redalert laying offline against the crashed hull of the Atlantis.

"What... what just happened?" Optimus muttered in horror.

The Fallen strode over to the autobot leader. His fiery countenance seemed unaffected by the sudden change around him. "It does not matter Prime. Soon you will be with Primus and he will be no more."

Optimus pointed his blaster at the Fallen but before he could pull the trigger the larger Transformer bent and melted the barrel in his massive hand. The Fallen grasped Optimus in his massive hands and lifted him clear off the ground and began to press hard with all his might.

"This is a pleasure that I have waited eons for Prime." The Fallen said, not caring if he could be heard or not. "Please, scream as loud as you want."

Megatron and Optimus's otherworldly counterpart fired on the abomination but to no avail. Optimus's world faded to black...

---

Optimus felt his optics kick back on. The Fallen was gone. His comrades were seated around him in the audience of the peace conference building with numerous. Metroplex, Override, Colonel Franklin, Scourge, and Evac were sitting at the table with him. It was just like before their visitors from the other dimension had arrived.

"What... what just happened?" Override asked, looking around the table. "I was back on Velocitron one second and now I'm back here?"

"Good question. This not be the repair work me n' my boys did. This be the original buildin'." Metroplex added, his trained optics scanning the room.

"I don't understand it either," Evac said, "but it looks like Jazz, Hound, and all those decepticons are gone."

Optimus felt a little guilty for the relieved sigh that escaped him. He couldn't explain it but everything had been returned to the moment before the sudden attack. It was almost like... time travel. A smile came to his face; it was ludicrous but he felt that Vector Prime had some hand in this.

"Whatever the case, since we are all here I feel we should continue with the peace talks." Prime said, leaning forward on his chair.

The gathering at the table agreed, and soon they were discussing what was to be done with the Cyber Planet Keys.

Scourge was happy that no one brought up the battle on the moon. While he had been under the power of the Incesticons they had forced him onto his hands and knees and made him scrub the floors of the hanger bay where the Terrorcons had made a huge mess. An indignity he did not want to speak about.

---

Elsewhere Crumplezone, Ransack, and Thunderblast sat atop one of the finished buildings on Cybertron's surface. They were watching as Thundercracker drudged along with the Autobots who were busy repairing the other buildings.

While Thundercracker had accepted their loss and was attempting to move on Crumplezone and Ransack were at a loss as to what to do next. They had been reunited with Megatron only long enough to play as Scourge's stooges. When he had transported them back to the other side of the moon to watch and wait for the opportunity to grab the Matrix and the Omega Lock it seemed like they would have it all. Then in the blink of an eye they were sitting here alone.

Thunderblast however wasn't as depressed as her companions. She felt a little sorry that she had missed seeing Megatron again but she wasn't hung up over him as before. She felt as though some part of her was left behind during her time in stasis lock. She shook her head, without Megaton it didn't seem right to hang around these losers anymore. There had to be somewhere out there that was more fun than this place.

"Well Ransack? What do we do now?" Crumplezone asked.

"I guess we go back to Velocitron. We helped out in the final battle against Galvatron. They should be welcomed back with open arms!"

"Yeah, we didn't have to help those autobots. We saved the universe!" Crumplezone said, standing tall on the roof. "We're the real saviors of the galaxy!"

Thunderblast rolled her optics. They would probably be beaten into slag when they got back to their homeworld.

---

On the other Cybertron things were not as peaceful. Although everyone had been returned to their world Scourge was quick to flee and Megatron was quick to round up every decepticon who had followed him. Soundwave was passively pardoned for his role in the operation and pressed into duty of hunting him down.

The supposed solar collector was no longer there and in its place was a standard model; much to the dismay of Preceptor and the other autobot scientists who had high hopes of studying it.

Jazz, Hound, Grimlock, and all the others had returned home as well. Optimus Prime reassigned them to more important duties concerning their current threat; the second generation Cybertronians.

"Alls well that ends well." Jazz said, using one of his favorite human expressions. "I mean overseeing an outpost is better than keeping an eye on solar collectors right?"

Hound nodded, looking out the window of the shuttle into the blackness of space. "You think those guys are going to be okay in their dimension? I mean, it never seems to end with us-"

"Sure they will." Jazz said "We always bounce back. Sure those bots are soft but those decepticons were even softer."

Silence prevailed for a few minutes before Jazz asked; "Still no word on Steelburst?"

Hound shook his head. "Nah, but he's probably wandering around somewhere. Who knows where that crazy bot is."

Jazz nodded. "Yeah, Prime probably knows where he is and has him assigned to something nice and safe."

---

In the twisting and folding of time and space Steelburst drifted, unable to move. When time had shifted that last time he had found himself unable to move, scream, or even transform into his stealth fighter mode. His sensors were going wild, it was just as maddening as the first time he had traveled this bizarre way. But still, despite all this suffering he was enduring he wore a beaming smile.

Vector Prime had thanked him for his help in setting things back to normal in the one way that could have made him smile like he was.

The mechanical parts that allowed his spark had been removed and nestled within his cranial housing was the one thing that could ease his troubled mind.

"You've been through a lot haven't ya, ya big bag a' bolts?" A voice rang throughout Steelburst's mind. "Sounds like a lot of trouble for such a small thing as me."

"Yeah... but it was worth it. I missed you a lot Isaac." Steelburst said, despite the pain he was feeling he was able to speak to his partner through their mind link.

"Maybe I should take over for a while. You sound like crap. Well, more so than usual." Isaac chuckled.

"No." Steelburst said sternly, "I'll just have to endure this until we get out of here."

Isaac sighed, "Fine, be stubborn about it."

This time it was Steelburst's turn to chuckle. It was just like old times.

Not far Vector Prime watched as Steelburst drifted on the ebb and flow of time and space. He regretted that he had displaced him to stop Unicron from emerging in that universe. He knew it was not his fault, the Chaos Bringer's presence had nearly pushed them both into underspace where his servant The Fallen had been trapped for millions of years. The least he could have done was to use his power of time and space to give him back his partner. He would be free of this place some time soon.

---

END.

---

AN: Okay, it's a terrible cliché to end this with a Deux ex machina but to be honest I just wanted this over with. At least Steelburst is happy in the end.

tomorrow4eva - Guh, mistakes irritate me... and why didn't my spell check catch that? Yeah I'm pretty much just rushing through this story, It's been going on so long it feels like for.

GrimlockX4 - Thanks... any fic that goes over 12 chapters starts to become more of a marathon than a fun little fic.

SpartanCommander - Really? I don't remember that at all but that's so Grimlock. XD

Meirelle - That's a lot of baking... thank you!


End file.
